After a two-year break, the Val d'Isère Adventure and Discovery Festival is back from April 19 to 22. Here are the must-see films for this occasion.
The International Adventure & Discovery Film Festival of Val d'Isère celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. From April 19 to 22, 2022, the festival returns to the Maison de Val and the Convention Center of the Savoyard resort. Four evenings of free admission screenings are scheduled and more than 9,000 spectators are expected to attend (it will also be possible to see 8 of the 11 films in the selection in free access on the festival website). The travel writer Sylvain Tesson will be the master of ceremony of this 2022 edition. Here are the films that you should not miss on this occasion among the 11 productions in the program.
Out of the blue
After having produced many films about Kilian Jornet, to whom he is close, Sébastien Montaz-Rosset has now tackled an artistic project, without leaving the mountain world. With his partner Davina Beyloos Montaz-Rosset, they directed and self-produced without brand partners the film "Out of the blue", a crazy project on the summits of the Swiss Oberland. While an enigmatic character recruits street artists and mountaineers for this adventure, Maja and Sebastian, talented young acrobats from Bern, hesitate to embark on this incredible vertical odyssey.
Hell and Heaven
La Française Justine Dupont is one of the best big game surfers in the world. She now lives in Nazaré, a small Portuguese fishing village that the whole world discovered barely ten years ago and which now welcomes the world's surfing elite who have come to challenge one of the biggest waves in the world. This 52-minute documentary plunges us into the daily life of the French surfer, in the heart of an environment mostly reserved for men. A unique experience of total immersion behind the scenes of the first mixed surfing world championships. An adventure full of twists and turns that will make this competition a historic moment.
Alaska Patagonia - The great crossing
The screening will be attended by Sophie Planque and Jérémy Vaugeois (whom We Rock Sport had also met a few months ago). This couple left to cross the most extended road of the planet by bicycle by "scanning" the American continent from Alaska to Patagonia by the mountains, during two years and half. From 70° north latitude to 54° south latitude, over 28743km covered only by pedaling, this film is an ode to an unknown America, far from the beaten track. It is an invitation to wonder at the simplicity and romanticism of the journey. Go and embrace the American geography as you have never seen it before.
Yukon, a white dream
The personal quest of wildlife photographer Jérémie Villet, a dreamer of images in love with the cold who travels alone through the white deserts of the northern hemisphere. He uses the white of the snow, like a painter uses a canvas, to reveal the purity of nature and retranscribe its beauty. During this expedition in the Canadian Far North, Jeremie explores the wild and extreme region of the Yukon, with the main objective of photographing the emblematic "Mountain Goat", which depends entirely on the cold and the altitude for its survival. Rarely photographed in winter, this white animal is a product of the last ice age. His quest, both intimate and universal, is to bring back pure photographs of this species, witness of a sensitive and fragile fauna.
The Long Walk
It is in the heart of Namibia, the country of ancestral cultures and breathtaking landscapes, that you will meet Cwi and Kamaché, two bushmen, and Aleksandra, a tall blond woman of 27 years. The trio set out to cross this beautiful, hostile, desert country under a blazing sun. They travel light - a bow, arrows, a spear and a bag each.