Results and Comments from the Jury

Saskia Anley McCallum, Mark Batey, Will Gadd and Michael Pause

The pronouncements of the Jury

Introduction - criteria

We were looking mainly for narrative, story-telling combined with whatever it is about a film that makes an audience want to carry on watching - in other words, the quality of the film-making, not the quality of the achievement. We were more impressed by good films about a minor achievement than a dull film about the most astonishing expedition to the remotest most extreme mountain.

We also endorse Will Gadd's advice given during the judging of the Adventure Film Academy - plan really carefully how long you think your film should be, then aim to cut it by half.

We weren't impressed some of the genres, like adventure 'porn' and holiday movies. You know what I mean about porn - looks great, the same action all the time, doesn't mean a thing. And those holiday movies of a trip that start at the beginning usually with packing rucksacks, usually have a shot of a someone in an aeroplane, and end up at the top of some hill.

This may sound a little harsh and dismissive, but it is not meant to be.
We saw many stunning films during our week of deliberation, and almost all of them could have been contenders in the main categories, and all would certainly be contenders for awards in categories many other festivals.

So, we turn to the first category

BEST FILMS ON ENVIRONMENT

Several films caught our attention in this category.

THE EDGE OF EDEN - Living with Grizzlies (or The Bear man of Kamchatka in its shorter version).
This was a beautifully shot and structured story of man's obsession with bears. Ultimately a better outcome than Timothy Treadwell in that he managed to survive - always a good thing. The film gave an emotional insight into a man's real love for the environment.

OIL AND WATER PROJECT
Too many entries in the environment category took a really heavy-handed, po-faced approach to the subject, and this turned most of us right off.
There was one notable exception, the Oil and Water Project, which did the opposite. It was one of the few films that could easily have been longer, and one with really infectious enthusiasm for taking their environmental message everywhere along their journey.

TEPUY
The table mountains of Guyana - beautifully filmed story about a journey to one of these inaccessible and unique mountains. A good exploration of the relationship between bizarre geology and the biology that's grown up around it.

WINNER: EDGE OF EDEN - LIVING WITH GRIZZLIES

BEST FILMS IN CULTURE

In the Culture category we shortlisted 3 very different films.
Anthropologists are currently debating as a very major and potentially damaging issue, the way ‘the other’ is represented.

LAND OF SPIRITS is beautifully filmed and followed an exciting adventure. But we found the narrative old fashioned and colonial.  The film was almost redeemed at the end by the decision of the film makers to abandon their goal of shooting the ‘undiscovered’ tribe.

TRIBE is arguably one of the best series running on British TV. It appeals to a very wide audience and gives us a great insight into other ways of living. DARHAD is Bruce Parry at his best. He takes an anti-colonial approach by putting himself in situations which focus our attention on his   sense of common humanity. He manages to put himself without any prejudice literally into the boots of those he travels with.
A very well researched programme.

The jury room was a harmonious place until CALL IT KARMA, which was great because by this time some of us had started doing handstands and eating nicorettes. Eventually, we all agreed that the middle of the film following Galten Rinpoche’s journey to the West was an amazing story that was well executed.

We make a Special Mention for CALL IT KARMA

But the Winner of the Culture Category is: TRIBE - DARHAD WILL:................

BEST SHORT FILMS

These films are always attractive to the jury because they are, well, short. But this category should really be called "Distilled." These films are the hard alcohol of the adventure film world, the tequila that produces strong results in small measures.

ZOLTAN is a great send-up of the often-pretentious adventure sports world. We need more films like this. And it was short.

I CAN DO THAT follows a group of women up Muztagh-ata in China. It broke all the rules for good film making in that it was a Holiday film, the women didn't' t (quite) get up the peak and the shooting was not high-quality. But it had a great story, tons of enthusiasm and it was short.

COMMITTED KEEN YOUTH proved a little hard for the festival director to find as it was deep within what is bound to be one of this year's top climbing DVDs - COMMITTED. The short KEEN YOUTH does a great job of portraying exactly what the title suggests. What did it for us was the climber's perfect commentary on one of his first solo climbs - the scaffolding outside his parent's house about age 7. And it was short.

And the winner is, COMMITTED KEEN YOUTH

BEST ADVENTURE FILMS

In the Adventure category we short listed:

OIL AND WATER - a wonderful fast paced ‘rites of passage’ adventure by a couple of likeable kids that happen to make a lot of difference to the world along the way.

PSYCHE - PATAGONIA WINTER - We just loved how Ian and Andy laughed their way through the miseries and hardships of mountaineering.

CAL IT KARMA - anyone who can stay in a cave for 6 years, 6 months and 6 days and walk across the Himalaya with out any Fleece or Gore-tex had a hard adventure and the film does well to get this across.

The winner is PSYCHE - PATAGONIA WINTER

BEST CLIMBING FILMS .

This category is the bedrock on which mountain film festival grow. It's also The category that personally fires us up to go climbing. Sitting in a dark room watching climbing films while the sun is shining outside is very close to my definition of torture. The quality and quantity of true climbing films entered this year added to the misery. In fact, we felt that any of the three top films were all worthy of our very highest award - the Christmas DVD gift to a fellow climber award!

AERIALIST - The film explores how Dean Potter continues to celebrate the life of his fallen friend through ever-wilder adventures on the rock and above it. The production values are not always perfect, but the story and action blast through the technical issues with a raw immediacy found in the best films. After watching this film Mark and I were moved to try slack lining 'cause Dean makes it look so easy. We did not do well.

UNDERDEVELOPED - In North America we have a stereotype that the Irish are fun-loving and mischievous, and this film did nothing to dispel that stereotype. Occasionally a film comes through the festivals I attend that is clearly the first effort of a talented new film making team. I hope this excellent film is just the start for this crew.

KING LINES - Chris Sharma is one of those climbers who seems to effortlessly float up the hardest technical climbs in the world and straight into our magazine pages. But while Sharma certainly has the talent, King Lines goes behind the magazine hype to show a climber with a life-long obsession with doing his absolute best. Sharma may or may not live up to the media hype, but he definitely cares less about it than the climbing public.

We have a special mention award for UNDERDEVELOPED and hope it encourages these film makes on their journey.

But the Winner is, AERIALIST

BEST MOUNTAINEERING FILM

In the category Mountaineering, we put three films on our short list.
They portray three different aspects of mountaineering, but failure is the common thread. a classic mountain adventure; a new trend - racing up and down the mountains for speed records; and a piece with alpine history and psychology.

PSYCHE - PATAGONIA WINTER - the film as a whole is a great achievement.
it shows true adventure and mountain spirit, the acceptance of failure; good camera work done by the protagonists themselves under harsh conditions

THE FASTEST SUMMIT - GASHERBRUM II - A film that has two sympathetic protagonists whose enthusiasm takes the audience all the way along to the summit and to the end of the film. An expedition film without to much of the expedition film patterns. It contains curiosity, humour, failure, good spirit.

THE BECKONING SILENCE - film about mountain climbing as "a love affair with risk taking" (Joe Simpson). Joe Simpson brings back to memory a tragedy that took place in the Eiger north face in 1936 and which has added a lot to the horrifying reputation of that face. Central piece is the reconstruction of the historic events - with great camera work - embedded into Joe Simpson's commentary in which he compares the fate of Toni Kurz with his own gruelling and tragic experience at Siula Grande (Touching the Void). It's about the "sense of being abandoned" when someone finds himself in a situation "helpless, incredibly alone".

And the Winner is THE BECKONING SILENCE

JURY'S SPECIAL PRIZE

Some names continued to be debated throughout our deliberations.

OIL AND WATER PROJECT
Did we mention that this film is also really funny? And some great kayaking footage on rivers that Will tells me are right up there, as well as looking totally terrifying.

UNDERDEVELOPED
This was being edited right up to the wire - it did have a number of Problems with the camerawork, but full marks for a movie by first-time film-makers that really communicated the fun that climbing can be.

CALL IN KARMA

As a jury, we weren't exactly as one on this one but it's in this category because we all were totally gripped by the story of a young Tibetan monk's development from a kid in a village to a kind of international guru.

And the winner is - OIL AND WATER PROJECT

GRAND PRIZE

Again, there were a several films that appeared in other category that we consider for the top prize.

THE BECKONING SILENCE is a great film with a reconstruction of a famous tragedy in the Eiger north face from 1936 which is in it's psychological aspects compared with Touching the Void. It takes up an event which had a key function for Joe Simpson's experience of (approach to) mountain climbing.

THE EDGE OF EDEN/BEAR MAN is a film that wants to tell the true story about grizzly bears. With presenting great camera work, an authentic protagonist and a touching story it gives us an idea of dealing with nature full of respect and responsibility. Behave like the (human) protagonist, behave like the bears: "determined, brave, independent - the true grizzly".

KING LINES: In this portrait of climbing super star Chris Sharma, we do meet a star - but quickly we get to know a sympathetic young man who takes his stardom as well as climbing at the limit of gravity in stride.
The outstanding action in some of the hardest climbing routes of the world takes us to spectacular scenery and to superb lines in Greece, Spain, USA and Venezuela. In a nearly perfect way the camera work shows the power as well as the elegance of his climbing style. The story has a clear structure and the editing is very well done. The commentary is restraint and not craving for sensation; it owes much of its authenticity by wide use of interviews with Chris Sharma.

We award the GRAND PRIZE to KING LINES

PEOPLE'S CHOICE went to the full length version of PSYCHE

It was a close fought contest with The Beckoning Silence, The Longest Climb and Ama Dablam - 4 Go High not far behind.