Full list of films from 2003

Undoubtedly the most successful and enjoyable Festival yet with the highlight for many people being the pre-release showing of "Touching the Void".

Much of the success was due to the increased help from the two presenting sponsors Berghaus and the Northwest Development Agency.

Over 6000 people attended the events that centred on the Brewery Arts Centre and the Leisure Centre in Kendal. There were also a series of events held in conjunction with Rheged near Penrith and The Kendal Climbing Wall.

We started on the 6^th October with "Echoes of the Himalaya - Tibetan Dance and Music" which was performed by a group of nine Tibetan folk singers, musicians and artists. On the 12^th October we kicked-off a series of mountain feature films shown every Sunday. The strong programme was "La Grande Crevasse" , "Premiere de Cordee", "Atanarjuat", "The Cup" and " Himalaya".

A new project this year was the Extreme Film School which started by asking  "Are you interested in making a film?" It was focused on the North West in part because it was generously supported and funded by Media Training North West, North West Vision and the BBC in Manchester. Fifteen candidates were chosen from a large application and then spent a weekend learning how to film and use cameras and sound equipment. They were then loaned the equipment by the BBC to shoot the footage and then returned for a weekend of editing. Five, 2 minute short films were made on a range of diverse adventure sports - In-line skating, mountain biking, bouldering, sand dune boarding and under ice diving. Two were shown on the BBC just before the Festival.

On Sunday the 9^th November Rheged held an evening of Everest films including Sir Edmound Hillary's address to Banff with footage of the first ascent then Leo Dickinson's "Everest Unmasked" and Michael Dillon's "Sea to Summit" On the same evening (and the following day) "Elevation" - a vertical drama was played at the Kendal Climbing Wall - a fascinating and experimental performance that the Festival wants to encourage further.

The "White Water, Wheels and BASE" Wednesday evening was new for '03 and we had a cracking line up of films sponsored by Sigg. Technical hitches with 3 of the films resulted in a last minute change in the programme and we showed more water than wheels for which we would like to apologise to the mountain bikers. The problems were more than compensated for by Dave Kwant introducing his kayaking film and Shaun Ellison his Baffin BASE film.

The Thursday "Ski and Board " evening was a sell out and had a wide variety of films and a lecture on the Haute Route by renowned mountain guide, Nigel Shepherd. Again the gremlins attacked one of the films which we had to show in black and white. The technical side of the Festival is a logistical maze with films being sent in numerous different formats and on these two evenings the gods were against us and even our normally infallible technical wizards could not fix the problems. We showed 71 different films and had over 200 film screenings and 4 went wrong. We hope to improve next year!

American top alpinist Conrad Anker revisited the North side of Everest in a compelling presentation at Rheged on Thursday evening in which he tried to explain his thoughts on the aftermath of him finding Mallory's body.

The following evening at Rheged also had an Everest theme. "Everest Lives" was compèred by Ed Douglas and focussed on how Everest has affected peoples lives, particularly the people who live around it. Doug Scott, Dr Jim Duff and Ben Ayers are all very pro-active in helping the Nepalese people and their insights into the exploitation, health, westernisation and destruction of the culture of Nepalese people was fascinating. Sherpas Ang Phurba and Apa Sherpa (who has climbed Everest 13 times - as work) looked at it from their point of view.

The Extreme Film Pro Day took place all day Friday in the Brewery Theatre. This was a new and exciting addition to this years Festival where seasoned professionals mixed with those new to film making. Visual Impact provided a team of experts and a display of equipment. First the 5 Extreme Film School shorts were shown, discussed and judged then a series of seminars covered a diverse range of topics. In the morning Neil Thompson of Sony Broadcast discussed camera formats, Keith Partridge, camera use and protection in extreme environments and David Phillips from Visual Impact looked at the vast range of accessories. After lunch James Butler discussed sound recording in difficult environments followed by Richard Else on making a successful adventure film. For many the highlight was John Smithson explaining the making of "Touching the Void" and Mark Dyson's bringing us all down to earth with how to get films on TV. Finally Jude Bell & Ian Sampson from Media Lawyers Addleshaw Goddard considered the legal problems in the film industry and Annie Black and Brian Hall, health and safety in extreme environments. Over the weekend Media Training North West provided career guidance

The Friday evening DMM "Celebration of sea cliff climbing in Britain" was a sell-out. The audience was treated to a fascinating evening of contrasts: archive footage of the live outdoor broadcast of "Spiders Web", Ian McNaught-Davis's amusing recollections of early development on Gogarth, Tom Patey, Old Man of Hoy and more, George Smith on heinously overhanging sea cliffs and Niall Grimes on deep water soloing and embarrassing the Festival Directors! Hosted by Mike "Twid" Turner.

George Smith, Niall Grimes & Twid Turner

SATURDAY

The Saturday was the busiest day at the Festival. Many people watched the wide variety of Films on offer - 71 with over 50 entered as part of the competition. These were shown in 5 venues in the Brewery and as last year the Saturday film pass was a sell out.

The most eagerly awaited of these films was Touching the Void which was shown six times over the weekend (including twice at Rheged). The two Saturday afternoon gala performances were attended by many of the production team including Joe Simpson, producer John Smithson, actors Brendan Mackay and Nick Aaron who introduced the film with q & a at the end. The opinion of the film was virtually unanimous - as Alex Huber succinctly put it "The best climbing film ever made - amazing"

After the last two years of serious competition we decided to run a "fun" bouldering comp at the Kendal Wall. Scarpa helped sponsor it and we got lots of prizes from all our other sponsors. Thanks. Everyone was a winner but in particular Nick Clements won the men's, Cecile Rittweger the women's and Tim Carruthers the vets (as usual!)

SUNDAY

John Beatty's superb poster specially made for the Festival.

Sunday was Everest Day at the Festival. Planning to put the programme together and coordinate the 15 guests had taken the best part of a year. Ed Douglas compèred the day of lectures, debate, films and awards superbly. His talents as a journalist mix well with his interest in the history of Everest and of course he is a well travelled climber as well.

Ed Douglas

The day was split into, nominally the "then" in the morning entitled "Everest - the Highest Challenge" sponsored by First Ascent and the "now" in the afternoon called "The Changing Face of Everest" sponsored by Outside.

The day started with film of Sir Edmund Hillary's seminal address to Banff in 2001 followed by Ed Douglas posing the question "How does Everest change lives?" with particular reference to Tenzing - he recently wrote his biography.

Mike Westmacott and George Band, two members of the of the 1953 expedition then discussed the first ascent.

Following the chronological path, historian and author Audrey Salkeld looked at the Chinese and American ascent with the help of some old film footage.

Westmacott, Douglas & Band.

Sir Chris Bonington, Tut Braithwaite and Doug Scott finished the morning with a lecture on the famous 1975 SW Face expedition

Audrey Salkeld

Sir Chris Bonington, Patron and best supporter of the Festival.

Stephen Venables

After lunch Conrad Anker discussed his views on Everest, particularly from the north and the controversy following his discovery of Mallory's body. We welcomed Stephen Venables for the second consecutive year to remind us of his great ascent of the Kangchung Face without bottled Oxygen.

Film maker, mountaineer and adventurer Leo Dickinson knows Everest better than most. His film "Everest Unmasked" follows Messner and Habeler on their epic first ascent without bottled oxygen. He then made the ground breaking (sic) balloon flight over the summit. This years Festival saluted Leo with a special retrospective programme of his films, His talk during the Everest afternoon had more than a hint of humour!

Leo Dickinson (on the left)

Rebecca Stephens

After Rebecca Stephens became the first British women to stand on the top of Everest it perhaps changed her life more than she could ever of imagined. She discussed how women fit into the previously dominated mans world.

Increasingly Everest is climbed by guides and their clients. Russell Brice is one of the most successful guides and Tony Kelly one of his clients who succeeded - but not without a huge effort. Is this the future of Everest? With so many people wanting to climb or trek to Everest and the other Himalayan Peaks there is plenty of work for the local population. But at what cost? How much do they get paid and why are they often treated badly? Apa Sherpa has climbed Everest an incredible 13 times and he travelled over specially with Ang Phurba to discuss Everest, Mother Goddess and source of income!

Douglas, Brice, Kelly, Apa Sherpa & Ang Phurba

Sunday was not all Everest and over at the Brewery there was a full day of films and a number of notable lectures. Dr Jim Duff has been a friend of the Nepalese for many years and he takes up residence there each year helping the Sherpa and teaching medicine and health care. His morning lecture focused on his other role - teaching wilderness and high altitude medicine to trekkers. This was followed by John Beatty and Bernard Newman (editor of Climber magazine) discussing photography and in particular the web photo competition.

 
Professional choice winner of the landscape web comp
Highcup Nick by Roy Fleming 

Alex Huber

The highlight of the afternoon for climbers at the Brewery was the eagerly awaited Alex Huber Lecture sponsored by Berghaus. He showed why he is regarded as probably the best "all round" rock climber in the world, climbing at the highest standards on Big Walls, speed ascents and soloing. Now that he is moving his attention to the Greater Ranges what great challenges will fall to this power-house?

 

Producer John Smithson receives the Peoples Choice award for Touching the Void.

The Prize Ceremony hosted by Lindsay Cannon and introduced by Sir Chris Bonington was the finale of the weekend. Audience and film makers alike waited for the judges decisions in the various categories. "Touching the Void" took the Grand Prize and Peoples Choice. For the rest look at the 2003 Winning Films on this web site. The screening of the winning films filled Sunday evening. And that was 2003. We look forward to 2004 (weekend 19th - 21st November) and to touring Britain at a number of venues showing the "Best of Kendal" (contact us if you are interested in a show).

Judges Band, Rosso, Cannon (coordinator) Thomas & Handling (Margaret Wicks the 5th judge not in picture)   Sir Chris Bonington, Festival Directors Brian Hall & John Porter plus Alan Hinkes and Bernadette MacDonald(director of Banff) winding down at the end of a long weekend.   A deserted Brewery Arts Centre early Monday morning.