From 21st April to 3rd May the base camp is in Trento

Maurizio Nichetti, artistic director of TrentoFilmfestival, and Augusto Golin in charge of the cinematographic programming have created a rich schedule of cinematographic events including extraordinary national and international previews – documentary films, news reports and fiction – where the video cameras will be shooting in extreme, exotic and mountain landscapes.

The film contest will open on Saturday 25th April with the silent film: Erich von Stroheim’s masterpiece, Blind Husbands, dated 1919, screened with the live musical accompaniment of “I Filarmonici di Trento” Orchestra.

Among the 43 films in contest at the 57th TrentoFilmfestival is the film directed by Madeline Piujuq Ivalu and Marie Helene Cousineau Before tomorrow, straight from the Sundance Film Festival. It is a story set among the most isolated Inuit population in the Arctic region and tells of their difficult relationship with the white men and their uncertain survival in the extreme environment of this fragile community. After the multi-awarded success of Il vento fa il suo giro the director Giorgio Diritti presents his new documentary Piazzàti (minàas fitàas) shot in the Occitan Valleys of Italy and France and dedicated to “rented” children, a common practise of poor families in many Alpine valleys. The documentary Tara voyage au coeur de la machine climatique by Thierry Ragobert and Emmanuel Roblin is shot in the Arctic region and tells about one of the most important European scientific missions on global warming, the "Damocles Project".

TrentoFilmfestival presents its mountaineering fans with a preview of the documentary Karl, about the South Tyrolean mountaineer Karl Unterkircher who tragically died in July 2008 during an attempt to climb the inviolate face Rakhiot of the Nanga Parbat. This film by Valeria Allievi – formally a fashion director but now confirmed in mountain production and directing - highlights the figure of the mountaineer, calm and smiling, but also stubborn and determined, facing every challenge with positive energy.

In the documentary Berhault the director Gilles Chappaz traces the career of this character who was adored by generations of climbers. There are contributions and testimonies by people like Patrick Edlinger who will be in Trento, the director of Berhault’s films Laurent Chevallier and Philippe Magnin, his last rope partner. Eighty years on the top by the Indian director Karamjeet Singh is a report on the explorations and mountaineering in the Himalayas, seen through eighty years of history of the "Himalayan Club". Faszination Bergfilm - Himmelhoch und Abgrundtief by Hans Jürgen Panitz and Matthias Fanck is a homage to the mountain film: a genre since the 20s and 30s, linked to the figures of Arnold Fanck, Luis Trenker and Leni Riefenstahl and to works such as Berge in Flammen, Das blaue Licht e Der Berg ruft - real classics of the cinema.

The life and stories of small mountain communities are represented by works such as the short Racines by the director Eileen Hofer: in a Turkish village threatened by the construction of a dam, an unemployed widower attempts to celebrate his son’s 9th birthday, with dignity. The son dreams of flying like Superman. Anne, Véronique and Erik Lapied, the directors of Dolma du bout du monde tell of life in a small community in the Himalayan valley of river Zanskar which provides the only connection between the villages and the outside world and is practicable only in winter when its waters are frozen. Sonbahar, by the director Alper Ozcan tells the story of the difficult journey home to the mountains around the Black Sea undertaken by a young Turkish student who was imprisoned because of his ideas and who only released because of a severe illness.

This year TrentoFilmfestival will not only present the films in contest for the Golden Gentian award. The audience will be able to choose from among a wide variety of films that are not submitted in the competition: 35 films in the special sections: Orizzonti (12), Alp&ism (10), Vitalpina (10) and Anteprime (3).

I recuperanti, will be screened in homage to Ermanno Olmi and in memory of Mario Rigoni Stern, recently deceased, who wrote the script for Il tempo si è fermato the film that won Olmi the Golden Gentian in 1959. To pay a homage to the documentary film maker Raymond Depardon, the TrentoFilmfestival will present La vie moderne, a new episode of the “Profils Paysans” trilogy. During the first days of the festival, the section Eurorama - organised by the Museum of Costumes and Traditions of the Trentino People of San Michele all’Adige - will present films from the major ethnographic festivals.
The TrentoFilmfestival is promoted by the Municipality of Trento, Club Alpino Italiano (Italian Alpine Club) ad the Municipality of Bolzano.

THE INTERNATIONAL JURY
The international jury of the TrentoFilmfestival is very prestigious, particularly its president Giuliano Montaldo, a great personality of the Italian cinema, author of Sacco e Vanzetti, L'Agnese va a morire and the television programme Marco Polo, and President of RAI CINEMA for several years.
The President will have an experienced jury, which includes Marco Preti, Italian mountaineer and director who has received several awards at TrentoFilmfestival and in other festivals; the German documentary-maker Sibylle Tiedemann, professor of cinema; Montserrat Guiu, Catalan producer and director of the Picurt Short-film festival dedicated to the Pyrenees; Ivan Boccara Moroccan director who received the Silver Gentian for the film Tameksaout (2005) at TrentoFilmfestival in 2006.
 
THE PRIZES OF TRENTOFILMFESTIVAL
The films that will participate in TrentoFilmfestival are selected by the board of directors and a special commission. The selected films are then judged by an International Jury that will award the following prizes:

"Città di Trento" Great Prize – Golden Gentian and 5,000 Euro – for the best film that, due to its high artistic qualities, will absolutely correspond to the cultural objectives that inspire the Festival
”Club Alpino Italiano” Prize- Golden Gentian and 3,000 Euro - for the best film of mountain and mountaineering
“Città di Bolzano” Prize - Golden Gentian and 3,000 Euro - for the best film of alpine sport, exploration and adventure
Silver Gentian and 1,500 Euro – for the best short
Silver Gentian and 1,500 Euro – for the best television production
Silver Gentian and 1,500 Euro – for the best technical-artistic contribution
A Jury Prize may also be awarded.

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