International Alliance for Mountain Film A HISTORY OF PASSION 2000-2020 SANDRA TAFNER International Alliance for Mountain Film edited the text A history of passion based on the memories of ALDO AUDISIO, ANTONIO CEMBRAN, MIREILLE CHIOccA, JOAN SALARICH with testimonies by JAVIER BARAYAZARRA, DANIEL BURLAC, BILLY CHOI, ROBERTO DE MARTIN, MARCELLA FRATTA, TOON HEZEMANS, THIJS HORBACH, GABRIELA KÜHN, BERNADETTE MCDONALD, ANGELICA NATTA-SOLERI, MICHAEL PAUSE, MARCO RIBETTI, VALERIANA ROSSO, ANGELO SCHENA, PIERRE SIMONI, BASANTA THAPA and the archive documentation of the INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR MOUNTAIN FILM PAGE 7 ALDO AUDISIO has compiled the tables in the section IAMF Portrait with data from the minutes from the assemblies, working meetings, discussions and charters of the INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR MOUNTAIN FILM A HISTORY OF PASSION PAGE 29 2000-2020 Editorial coordination by ALDO AUDISIO Translation from Italian to English GABRIELA KÜHN Editing for English version BERNADETTE MCDONALD © INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR MOUNTAIN FILM Published by: THE INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR MOUNTAIN FILM TURIN, 2020 The International Alliance for Mountain Film is over twenty years old. Many years have passed since it was founded in the Hall of Emblems at the Mountain Museum in Turin, Italy. There is a photo of that meeting showing the nine representatives who first roped up together as a smiling team. Year after year, many others joined; now there are twenty-eight members. Though the number has tripled, the common goal remains the same as it was back then: to promote, enhance, and preserve mountain cinema. In twenty years, cinema has changed completely, passing from analog to digital systems. Television has also changed, with the growth of thematic channels accessible through smart TVs, computers, tablets, and smartphones, greatly increasing the audience of the works dedicated to the mountains. As a result, the management of the distribution rights, communication, and promotion channels have changed, with mountain films increasingly being protagonists of the market and the choice for mountaineers and top athletes. These are the implications of a continuously connected and online world, to which the Alliance and its members have adapted over time, in order to keep up with new trends, while at the same time always maintaining their unique edge. The objectives for the future remain those set at the beginning, namely to increase the spirit of friendship and collaboration that gave life to our association, and at the same time, offer a privileged point of view on the evolution of mountain cinema. We would like the International Alliance for Mountain Film to consolidate itself as a reference point for professionals and organizations that work in our sector and for audiences who love this film genre. Our twenty-year history and great restrictions suffered in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic teach us that it will be essential to continue fueling the passion and magic that only live activities and the 5 big screen can offer to the public. The warmth and emotions that the A HISTORY OF PASSION viewers of a film or the visitors of an exhibition transmit are our sources Sandra Tafner of energy and inspiration, so we will strive to always favour “in person” events, while combining them, when necessary, with those online. Javier Barayazarra, President Marco Ribetti, Coordinator February 5, 2000 didn’t feel like wintertime with the thermometer above freezing, and fog and mist that, from the terrace of the National Mountain Museum in Turin, prevented us from admiring the splendid pa- norama of the Alps. It was a Saturday like this that welcomed the founders of the International Alliance for Mountain Film – a novelty in the mountain world, or rather, in the world of mountain cinema. It was a big news. “We could have written a history based on documents, re-read the minutes and correspondence,” says Aldo Audisio, the former director of the Mountain Museum in Turin. “Instead we have relied on our memory and recollections to keep the spirit of emotions alive”. Thus, came the history of an association told by the three directors of three respective festivals - Toni Cembran, Mireille Chiocca, Joan Salarich - who have succeeded over the years as presidents of the Alliance. Its coordinator - Aldo Audisio - was immediately considered to contribute, not because he was behind a festival, but a museum with a very rich historical film and video library. Many other protagonists of this fascinating adventure have also given their precious contributions. The prologue dates back to 1999. For a year, suggestions and barely sketched ideas were offered, gradually taking the shape of a proposal. On the eve of the 47th edition of the International Mountain and Exploration Film Festival, a meeting was organized to cement what was born as an intuition in Trento. A necessary incubation period helped make it worth the wait. Something special would be born, such was the feeling. On March 26 1999, amidst preparations for the Trento Film Festival which was to begin at the end of April, festival president Claudio Visintainer and festival director Toni Cembran proposed a meeting with all the festivals’ directors, who had been regularly visiting the city on the occasion of the film screenings, to talk about their experiences and organizational challenges. It was a way to reflect broadly, prompted also 6 7 by the prospect of an important upcoming event – the International Year Graz, the “green city” of Styria, in Austria. Alongside him was Pierre of Mountains proclaimed by the UN for 2002, which would also highlight Simoni, whose festival was dedicated to alpine films, exploits and the great themes of Alpine cinematography. The Trento Film Festival the environment. It began in 1969 in Les Diablerets, Switzerland, in and the Mountain Museum of Turin were the founding members of the Canton of Valais, and was the oldest mountain film festival after the Italian Committee for the Year of the Mountains that committed Trento. Simoni was the festival’s director from 1981 to 2001. He countries worldwide to reflect in-depth on the problems, survival, and remembers being approached in those years by the deputy mayor of the future of the highlands, as a vital theme to which the cinema was Valence (France), Rodophe Pesce, who proposed to him to set up an also called upon to make its own contribution. association for the protection and promotion of adventure cinema. At An invitation letter was sent out to hold an informal meeting that time there were few appointments dedicated to the mountain at the Hotel Trento scheduled at 1 pm on May 1, the final day of the cinema in that part of France and in French-speaking Switzerland. These festival dedicated to the awards ceremony. Some directors had already were thematic events, such as the one about the sea in La Rochelle, left the night before, as usual, but others remained. There was Mireille scuba diving in Toulon, the descent of rivers in Venissieux, speleology Chiocca, director of the Autrans Mountain Film Festival in Isère, a French in La Chapelle-en-Vercors and free flight in Saint-Hilaire-du-Touvet. department which, after hosting the 1968 Grenoble Winter Olympics, had Some initial attempts were made to build a connection between these become the ideal launching ground for a mountain film festival in 1984. individual events, but for unknown reasons, the tour didn’t materialise. Also in attendance was Joan Salarich, head of a mountain and adventure It is in remembering these events that Pierre Simoni enthusiastically festival that was born a year earlier in Torelló, Catalonia, the land which joined the Alliance, which he defined as “our family widespread all over in the eighties lived through an explosion of Himalayan mountaineering. the world,” an association that today is proceeding at full speed and to Salarich recalls those times and explained: “That was the ideal place which he wishes long life and great success. to realise such an ambitious idea, because mountaineering was in full Marco Grandi, who had created the Festival of Festivals in Lugano in development there, expeditions were documented through excellent 1993, and Valeriana Rosso who had directed the Breuil-Cervinia Festival images, meetings were organized, and there were ongoing discussions”. since 1998 were also present at the meeting in Trento. “It was the youngest Many initiatives in Torelló had gradually matured into a bigger picture. festival, the last born,” she said. Valeriana was almost moved by a photo Back then, it was challenging because in San Sebastián, in the Basque taken on the day the IAMF was founded. “I had been working for only a few Country – a seaside resort in the Bay of Biscay – another festival had years in the mountain environment and in particular on mountain cinema. already been running since 1979. Also at that time in France, in Antibes – I didn’t have great experience in the world of mountaineering, but I had Juan-les-Pins (and in the last edition in Briançon), the Festival Mondial de great passion, knowledge of cinema in general and of films/documentaries l’Image de Montagne began – it was an experience that added a lot to the related to the environment”. As part of her work selecting titles for sector of mountain cinema, presided by Daniel Mercier. “In one of the first inclusion in a series of videos for the magazine “Alp” she attended various editions, I saw for the first time a bewitching danse escalade performance festivals and closely collaborated with many directors and protagonists, with Patrick Berhault on the facade of the Palais des Congrés,” recalls and these relationships over time turned into friendships. Audisio. “On that occasion I met Bernadette McDonald, who would In Lugano, Marco Grandi proposed a new and simple formula, a sort become a tireless promoter of our project”.