Cinema, culture, mountains

The mountains have been inhabited by shepherds, breeders and farmers for centuries and millennia. Only in the past two hundred years have mountaineers made their appearance in the Alps. And they have been going up the Himalayas for a little more than one hundred years. At the beginning, it was a privileged minority, consisting of people from the upper middle class and nobility, the first to enjoy free time after the first Industrial Revolution. Therefore we shouldn’t be surprised if mountaineering films are rare and infrequent.

Mountaineering is an absolutely “useless” activity, as Lionel Terray stated, able to tell stories only when they are shrouded by an aura of tragedy. There are only few exceptions. We could notice this last year with Remy Teziér’s film dedicated to Catherine Destivelle, a film that drew inspiration from the protagonists of the classic mountain films, such as Gaston Rebuffat, Marcel Ichac and Samivel. Moreover in the past decades classic mountaineering, which was practised in the Alpine summits, has suffered at least as far as the number of people practicing it, by the rivalry with sport climbing and bouldering, the only exception being Himalayas climbing which has however become a commercial activity.

The TrentofilmFestival, which for 57 years has been the main observatory of mountain film, adventure and exploration, could not but acknowledge this significant change. First of all the mountain is no longer a playground for mountaineers; also exploration is no longer considered as it was in the 19th century the discovery of unexplored places on the Earth, but instead the discovery of material cultures in an anthropologic sense, which have often survived thanks to their marginalisation; on the other hand, it is the everyday life adventure of those people who live on the fringes of “progress” or better of the globalisation processes, either by choice or destiny.

But if there is a protagonist of this year’s film festival: it is woman. This year, 60 films have been submitted by women directors. But, above all, woman is seen as the protagonist of those mountain communities, as the real “Anello forte” (strong point), as Nuto Revelli stated in his homonymous book published in the ‘70s about the drift from the Piedmont Western valleys. Women cultivate the land, raise their children, look after the animals and pass on their culture: they are the strong point in a society whose changes are often synonym with social disintegration. You just need to browse this catalogue to realise that women play a central role.

And finally this new, or different perspective of the mountain has proved to tell more and better stories than just those about mountaineering, which is demonstrated in this year’s Film Festival. Therefore all I can do is to wish all the people who are curious about what happens in the large mountain world an enjoyable Festival and enjoyment of its films.

Augusto Golin
In charge of the Cinematographic Screening