KENDAL MOUNTAIN FESTIVALS 2005 REPORT

Patron - Sir Chris Bonington

Presented by Berghaus & Northwest Regional Development Agency

                                   

The 25th anniversary edition of Kendal Mountain Festivals 12 - 20 November 2005 was an exciting and inspirational 9 days. Even with excellent weather for most of the week, around 5000 people came to at least one of the 290 film screenings and/or 39 lectures and presentations. Many more thousands came just to socialise, to visit the exhibitions, the book fair and fringe events, or to dip into some of the Festival activities while enjoying a trip to the Lakes to walk and climb in the sublimely clear conditions. 

The second annual Mountain Book Festival took place this year, with the aim of increasing interest in and access to mountain writing from around the world. The Book Festival and the Film Festival dove tail in to each other, thus creating interest over 2 weekends and throughout the week for visitors.  Both are supported by the 6 week long Mountain Arts Festival; with its exhibitions of painting, photography and sculpture, and its growing community arts programme.   

The Festival was as always truly international with visitors, lecturers and judges from Switzerland, USA, France, Sweden, Norway, Canada, Brazil, Bermuda, Nepal, Australia and most other parts of the globe. They took part in a weeklong programme of world-class lectures and debates at both the Film and Book Festival, and the Extreme Film School offered a real adventure for the eleven teams that took part in the 48 - hour Marathon.

The Programme began on Saturday 12 December with a debate chaired by Lord Smith on the value of wilderness and natural environments to a nation.  The debate looked at not only the physical but also the spiritual value of wild places, as real and as mental constructs.  Joining Lord Smith was the distinguished writer Robert Macfarlane; Jo Roberts from the Wilderness Foundation, American 5 time Emmy winning filmmaker Michael Brown and that most fiery protector of wild places, Dick Balharry from the John Muir Trust.  It was a truly inspirational evening at Rheged.

The following night the focus moved to the current political and social conditions in Nepal.  Ed Douglas, who had recently returned from a month of clandestine travel with the Maoists in Nepal, compered the event.  He was joined by an informed panel comprising Americans Ben Ayres and Conrad Anker, British Climber Doug Scott, ex-UN aid co-ordinator for the region - Andrew Stevenson - and the well-known Pemba Doma - the first Nepali woman to climb Everest from both sides.  All have had extensive experience with programmes to help local communities in Nepal, and with active audience participation, the debate concluded that Nepal is still a state in crisis.  There were no easy solutions and no interventions by the West were likely to have any lasting impact.  However the work of the charities like 'Community Action Nepal' and 'Porters' Progress' are essential to keep understanding and participation in self-help schemes a necessary part of the community.  The proceeds of the evening went in support of these 2 charities.

The Kendal Festival welcomed the BMC Winter Skills programme on Monday 14 and a near full house got all of the essential tips from top British Guides Martin Moran and Twid Turner.

Monday also saw the continuation of the Mountain Book Festival, which this year had 10 events taking place in Kendal at K Village Outlet Centre, the Brewery Arts Centre and Kendal Library and at Rheged near Penrith. More than 25 writers and presenters from the UK and overseas participated. A reader's group project was also piloted in 2005 with 15 local people reading 2 of the featured books, participating in a workshop run by Terry Gifford and subsequently attending the related events. This was extremely successful with excellent feedback from the group and from Cumbria Library Services. We also ran a very popular Book Fair as part of a broader 'On the Fringe' programme at K Village Outlet Centre during the main festival weekend.

 

 

George Band signing his books at K Village 'On the Fringe'

 

Kendal Library one of our KMF venues hosted a whole day devoted to Alfred Wainwright it featured debates, readings, presentations, a book fair and a panel discussion with notables such as Derry Brabbs who worked with Wainwright on 7 books, Eric Robson Chair of the Wainwright Society and Chris Jesty who was trusted by Wainwright to revise the new editions of his Pictorial Guides.

More than 1050 people attended Book Festival events with an average of 70% capacity in terms of seats occupied at the events. It is estimated that more than 200 people attended the free Wainwright event at Kendal Library on Monday the 13 November and more than 3,000 people visited the 'On the Fringe' programme which included the Book Fair, book signings and live book-related entertainment. It was noted that many of those attending the Book Festival had not previously attended the Film Festival. 

While the visitors were growing in number as the week progressed, the International Film Competition was being judged all week by a distinguished panel.  Our international film competition features over 250 screenings of films in five cinemas at the Brewery Arts Centre and also one at Rheged. This year, over 200 films were entered from 22 countries, with the final 64 in competition coming from Slovakia, Canada, the USA, Australia, Bermuda, South Africa and from all over Europe and the UK.

The jury this year comprised Michael Brown, an American filmmaker and Emmy winner; Lucy Creamer from Britain, one of our top female climbers; Christine Kopp, Swiss writer and film maker; Pierre Simoni, creator of the International Mountain Film Alliance and ex Swiss Romande TV Executive and Julie Summers, the well-respected biographer and writer.

In addition to the main competition, we also screened the world premiere of Haston - Memories of a Mountain Man, written and produced by Douglas Eadie and directed by Mike Alexander. This film celebrates the adventures of an outstanding mountaineer who life was tainted by controversy and tragedy.

The Book Festival on Tuesday included stories and readings from their favourite writers with Simon Yates and Stephen Venebles.  This proved a wonderful pairing and under the expert questioning of Andy Miles treated us to a humorous and revealing evening. 'Whose Life is it Anyway?' a debate held at Rheged on Wednesday brought together a group of authors who have all written acclaimed books about mountaineering or outdoor legends for an interesting discussion about what drives them to investigate the lives of their heroes. Another legend to feature was Millican Dalton the self styled Professor of Adventure. Matthew Entwistle who has recently written his book about Millican Dalton treated us to some fascinating photographs from the era.

Wednesday 16 saw the first of the special programmes devoted to individual adventures and sports.  This year due to demand from our audience we split the white water and mountain bike evenings and along with the ski night offered three very individual events. Wednesday at the Brewery Arts Centre we showcased a 'White Water and Wilderness' night. This not only showed a number of premiere films, but also featured 2 world class speakers:  Dr James Raffan Canadian raconteur and broadcaster, and Paul Grogan reading from his book and showing clips from his film entitled 'Barbed Wire and Babushkas'. The evening was a huge success. 

The following night had our equally successful ski night 'Steep and Deep', with again a mix of premiere ski films and a lecture from David Hamilton one of the world's foremost high altitude ski touring experts, Films included 'Unparrelled 4' from free heel skier Josh Murphy and 'Dropstich' an all girl ski and board film.

The same night at Rheged, the first of John Beatty's lectures was held and for many it was the highlight of the Festival; 'Sula - The Seabird Hunters of Lewis' told the story of an age-old tradition and secret ritual that takes place every year on a remote rock in the Atlantic. Never one to rest on his laurels, John's second lecture picked up the story of his 'Wild a Journey to Life' and was hailed as an audio-visual masterpiece on Saturday night.

Thursday also brought the opening events of the Extreme Film School. The Extreme Film School was conceived to stimulate and develop adventure, outdoor and extreme sports filmmaking and create a platform or consolidate a future for attendees in film and broadcast. This year the EFS developed a new element, the 48 Hour Extreme Film Marathon, which further creates opportunities for both professionals and amateurs alike to develop, hone and showcase their adventure filmmaking skills.

 

EFS attendees

 

Thursday 18 was the seminar day; 2 separate daylong seminars took place at the Brewery Arts Centre. For those with less experience - How to Make an Adventure Film - gave a thorough grounding into the adventure filmmaking business with demonstrations and a hands on approach from our highly skilled professionals. The Extreme Film School Filmmakers Seminar Day was aimed at the more experienced filmmaker who wanted to learn tips and secrets of the trade from seasoned professionals. As these 2 seminars ended the 48 Hour Extreme Film Marathon began. 11 teams used their own or borrowed equipment from the EFS and headed out in to the beautiful Cumbrian landscape to film their own 2 minute adventure film. Once footage had been captured the teams, with expert help from the professionals, worked through the night to edit, and add sound to their films. The results were incredible 11 2-minute films of huge diversity and subject matter gave viewers on Saturday evening a chance to see some fantastic established and new filmmakers at work.

 

EFS 48 Hr Marathon

 

The EFS would like to thank the dedicated team of professionals Graham Hoyland (BBC director & producer), Richard Else (independent film maker), Keith Partridge (adventure cameraman), Mark Batey (BBC cameraman and director) and Brian Hall (Co Director of the Festival). It would also like to thank Northwest Vision for their continued support, Visual Impact for all of their advice and help and Middlesbrough Council Arts Department. Without this support we could not offer this level of expertise at what is the only adventure filmmaking school of its kind in the world.

The final event on Thursday was Andy Cave joint winner of this years Boardman Tasker Mountain Literature prize reading from his book -'Learning to Breathe' - and talking to Ed Douglas about his climbing life.

 

At last, we come to the main Festival weekend!

The Great Wheel Invention grouped together a superb selection of mountain bike films. Shown at Rheged on Friday it captured the imagination of an enthusiastic sell out audience who were treated to 2 fabulous shorts from the joint winners from previous KMF Extreme Film Schools and feature length mountain bike extravaganzas, including the European premiere of 'New World Disorder 6'.

 

The Unusual Suspects at DMM

 

Friday night at the festival has become synonymous with the DMM lecture and this year was no exception. The Rock and Ice legacy brought together some of the most remarkable climbers who celebrated the routes of the 50s, Jim Perrin the other joint winner of the Boardman Tasker award for Mountain Literature and Dennis Gray performing on his ukulele. At the same time Bill Birkett was at Kendal Library in conversation with Terry Gifford about his books, climbing and photography.

 

Bill Birkett in conversation with Terry Gifford

 

Kendal Leisure Centre on Saturday was the venue for a series of back-to-back lectures and this year we started with the BMC/MEF Adventure Lectures, Simon Yates, Anne Arran and Paul Knott all thrilled us with stories of some amazing climbing.

 

Bill Ruthven of the MEF with Paul Knott, Anne Arran & Simon Yates

 

This was followed by Simone Moro and his lecture 'Life at 8000m' - one of the fittest and fastest climbers in the world Simone is also technically one of the best. Dave Macleod followed this with a wonderful film illustrated lecture on the Scottish climbing legacy.

 

Dave Macleod

 

We celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the first ascent of Kanchenjunga with lectures on the original ascent by George Band and then Doug Scott on his stunning first ascent of the NW face with Joe Tasker and Pete Boardman. Alan Hinkes continued the Kangchenjunga theme as he made it the last of the 14 8000m peaks to climb and gave us a reflection on an amazing climbing history.

 

Alan Hinkes

 

We ended at the Leisure Centre with a double act from Leo Dickinson and Eric Jones a trip down memory lane for many and an introduction to the hair raising exploits of a fascinating group of climbers.  This specially commissioned piece brought the country's best mountain filmmaker together with one of its great climbing heroes - it was tremendously entertaining.

 

Eric Jones and Leo Dickinson

 

Sunday finally rolled around.  By now there were many thousands of tired pairs of eyes, some of which had barely closed after the Planet Fear Saturday night party before it was time to start watching the 9am film screenings.  The lectures on Sunday featured Kitty Calhoun, the talented American climber. Her Sunday appearance was the second lecture, having lectured at Rheged the night before.

It is always good to end on a high and this year we did quite literally with one of the youngest and most talented climbers around. Leo Houlding gave us his story of the first free ascent of Fitzroy1400m North Pillar it was great fun and full of thrills.

The Awards Ceremony for the Film prizes is the culminating event of the weekend, always good fun and full of suspense.  Introduced by Festival Patron Sir Chris Bonington and presented by Julie Summers. There are 10 prizes awarded and all of the winners receive a fabulous Andy Parkin sculpture, Many deserving films unfortunately did not win any prizes but were given a special mention and were enjoyed by the audience.  Everyone who watched the films had their own favourites and the judges' selection is listed below.

 

Andy Parkin Film Award sculptures

International Film Competition Results 2005

 

John Porter - Kendal Mountain Festivals Director

Leo Houlding accepting the Climbing Award on behalf of Peter Mortimer from Bernard Newman of Climber Magazine

 

In addition to all the events, the Kendal Mountain Arts Festival held a number of exhibitions. The Arts exhibitions always start our festival a month before the main weekend. On the 18 October exhibitions by Jim Curran, John Beatty, Bill Birkett and an exhibition called -The Crux - were opened at the Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal. Jim Curran is not only an artist but also a notable cameraman, writer, lecturer and climber. He has been short-listed 4 times for the Boardman Tasker Mountain Literature award, received many prizes for his writing and won an EMMY for his involvement on the film Rock Queen. John Beatty presented the 2nd part of his acclaimed series of work - Wild. Digitally printed on to a special canvas the photographs are designed to give viewers an insight in to the diversity, texture and rhythm of the natural world. Bill Birkett a local climber, photographer and author, displayed images from his series of books 'A Year in the Life of... '.  His photographs also appeared at Kendal Library where they were accompanied by an exhibition of photographs from children at Langdale Primary School who with Bill, took and captioned their own - Day in the Life of Langdale. The Crux was compiled by award winning photographer and author Gordon Stainforth; commissioned by the Kendal Mountain Festivals, Gordon researched and selected 25 images that celebrate 25 years of British mountaineering and climbing. Victorinox sponsors Kendal Mountain Arts Festival.

 

Jim Curran's paintings in the Warehouse Gallery, Brewery Arts Centre

John Beatty's photographs in the Sugar Store, Brewery Arts Centre

Sponsored this year by Westmorland Gazette our online digital photo competition is becoming increasingly successful. This year we had a record number of entries for both the action and landscape categories and our winners were voted for by our professional judges local photographer and author Bill Birkett and Photo Editor of the Westmorland Gazette Steve Barbour and by the public through our website.

 

	(1)	Cliff Drop Verbier Switzerland by Pally Learmond (1) won both the Online and Pro Choice Action category, the runners up were Kusari Shiyanor by Nonna De Gubek Pro Choice Runner up and Trying Hard in Font by Stuart McNeil was the Online runner up in the action category. The Pro Choice winner in the Landscape category was Castle Hill by Stuart Mc Neil (2) and the Online winner was Alpine Start Below Redakk Brakk Karakorum by Colin Wells (3) it was also the Pro Choice runner up, the Online choice runner up was View of Aiguille De Bionassy by Neil Owens.
	(2)
	(3)

 

Thanks

Without sponsorship and help from individuals we would not be able to consider putting on a festival of this importance and variety. We have many thanks to make and send them all to the companies, organisations and individuals listed below who help us in so many ways. (in alphabetical order) Our particular thanks must go to our presenting sponsors Berghaus and the Northwest Regional Development Agency for their continued support.

Absolute Digital Printers, Arts & Business, Asolo, Balblair Whisky, Berghaus, BMC, Brewery Arts Centre, Bridgedale, Buff, Cicerone Press, Climber Magazine, Cumbria County Council, DMM, eVENT, First Ascent, Granger's, Grizedale Mountain Bikes, K Village Outlet Centre, Kendal College, Kendal Leisure Centre, Kendal Library, Kendal Tourist Information Centre, Kendal Town Council, Lavahouse Associates, Lottery Fund, Lowther Estates, MEF, Middlesbrough Council Arts Department, Northwest Regional Development Agency, Northwest Vision, PC Websites, Picture Works, Planet Fear, Rheged, Rural Regeneration Cumbria, South Lakeland District Council, The Westmorland Gazette, Thorlos, Ultimate Outdoors, University of Teeside, Victorinox, Visual Impact.

 

Good Causes

The Kendal Festivals are proud to be one of the few UK members of 1% FOR THE PLANET. We are also the only Mountain Festival in the world to be a member of this club. We donate 1% of our annual turnover to environmental causes. We continue to support Community Action Nepal and the John Muir Trust through our ticket sales.

 

The Best of Kendal Tour

Why not bring the world's most exciting adventure films to your area? The Best of Kendal Tour is world-renowned and with tours for 2006 already heading out to Canada, USA, Norway and Poland as well as to locations throughout the UK we will be spreading the word even further. Each year we select the best films from the Festival and offer them to clubs, organisations, film societies or entertainment & corporate groups. Programmes can be tailored to meet individual needs, for example one evening or a full weekend of films.  Costs vary depending on length of the programme and whether we provide technical equipment and support and guest speakers. For more information contact info@mountainfilm.co.uk and title your enquiry Best of Kendal.

 

Positive Feedback 2005

"I thought the Festival was so excellent in so many respects .. it is such a great thing to have alive and around" Robert Macfarlane, panellist 'The Wild Side' 12 November 2005

"It (the film festival) gets better every year but the addition of the Book Festival is just great .. I am hugely impressed and delighted to have been involved in it" Julie Summers, panellist 'Whose Life is it Anyway' 16 November 2005

"Many thanks for making the Kendal weekend such a success. The space we had was beyond expectations .. There was hardly anything I could think of to criticise and there was a minimum of a steady stream of people at all times" Chris Bartle, Glacier Books, Book Fair 18-20 November 2005

"I thoroughly enjoyed myself, absolutely fell in love with the Lake District (again) and had the time of my life attending the festival. It's a lovely convivial atmosphere and where else could one mix with some of the most famous and accomplished mountaineers, climbers, writers and film makers all in one place, in such a short period?" Andrew Stevenson - panellist 'New Order in Nepal' Sunday 13 November 2005