The third edition of the Chamonix Film Festival takes place in mid-June. 16 films are on the program, and five prizes will be awarded to the best productions.
Six evenings of screenings are scheduled in Chamonix at Cinéma Vox for the third Chamonix Film Festival. This year, two out-of-competition films will be screened outdoors in the Parc Couttet. And the good news is that both will be free to view. For the other evenings during the week of June 13 to 18, you'll need to book your tickets at the official website to attend the screening of three to four films per evening. Finally, the festival will also feature meetings with the directors and protagonists of the films in competition, as well as conferences and round-table discussions with mountain industry players. Below is a selection of some of the 16 films on the program for this third edition.
UTA The climb for Kosovo
In 2017, 34-year-old Uta Ibrahimi became the first inhabitant of Kosovo to climb Mount Everest. Her goal was to help the young people of her country turn the page on war and create a better future for their country. This film looks back at Uta's inspiring life, from her youth in a conflict zone, her struggles against gender stereotypes, to her journey to the top of the world.
We walked under the Earth
"On a marche sous la Terre" retraces the attempt by exceptional explorers Cédric Lachat and David Parrot to discover a junction between the Fromagère chasm and the mythical Berger chasm, in the Vercors massif. Through rare and immersive underground images, the film invites us to share the passion of a whole generation of speleologists, and questions this "quest for the useless", this insatiable need for discovery that drives adventurers to go ever further, ever higher, ever deeper...
Burning the Flame
Babsi Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher, two big wall specialists, decide to take on their biggest challenge yet: the free ascent of Eternal Flame, an elusive route (7c+) over 600 meters high on the legendary Tour Sans Nom, in Pakistan's Karakoram massif. In extreme conditions, at an altitude of 6,000 metres, a two-year quest comes down to a short weather window. Burning the Flame takes viewers to a place that remains inaccessible to all but the world's best mountaineers.
Still alive
Doctors gave him a life expectancy of twenty-five years. Today, ten years later, he is still climbing. Klaas Willems, who suffers from cystic fibrosis, has devoted his life to outdoor climbing. He has opened hundreds of routes in unpolluted areas such as Sardinia, Italy, and has found great success and serenity there. But in the course of his mountaineering activities, he discovered that he was also suffering from a tumor next to his heart. After beating the cancer, he returned to Sardinia to complete a new route: Still Alive (5.14b).
Pasang : In the Shadow of Everest
PASANG follows the tragic and inspiring story of Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, the first Nepalese woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1993. An uneducated indigenous woman, a Buddhist in a Hindu kingdom, Pasang's dream of climbing the legendary mountain pits her against her family, foreign climbers, her own government and nature itself. His determination to climb Everest is set against the backdrop of his country's quest for democracy and the emergence of the commercial mountaineering industry. As recounted by the Nepalese who knew her, by some of the world's most famous mountaineers and by Pasang herself, her destiny would transfigure her country and inspire a new generation to believe in its possibilities.
Refuge des Grands Mulets, a page turns
Ludovic Moucheront has been janitor of the Grands Mulets refuge for twelve years. In July 2022, he is leaving for good. He makes one last return trip up there with mountain guide Christophe Profit and his clients, and finishes tidying up the refuge while his guests head off to climb the summit of Mont Blanc. Ludovic looks back on his years as janitor and the reasons that led him to hang up his job, despite his strong attachment to this mythical place, frequented by some of the world's greatest mountaineers. Among them, Christophe Profit, who has become his friend, has made the Grands Mulets refuge his favorite base camp. He is the only guide to climb there so often in summer.
A beautiful trace
July 2022. Two mountain guides, Frédéric Dégoulet and Benjamin Ribeyre, set off on a journey around the Mer de Glace, passing through the most mythical peaks of the Mont-Blanc massif. This obvious line on the map was still unheard of, despite being located in one of the world's most visited massifs. After an aborted attempt in 2021, the duo's journey is now a race against time and temperature, as heatwaves rage across the Alps.
Air Karakoram
Using paragliding in the Himalayas like a cable car in the Alps for fun, mountaineering or skiing - that's the crazy idea of a group of 7 friends led by Antoine Girard. Heading for Pakistan to perform Himalayan combos!
The plan is simple: paragliding takes you to the high mountains, and from there, all you have to do is enjoy yourself. It's also a way of acclimatizing to the altitude, so you can try your hand at paragliding at altitudes of over 8,000 metres and break the world altitude record.
Heading for El Cap
Seb Berthe dreams of climbing Dawn Wall, the world's most difficult route. But to get to the foot of El Capitan in the USA, he has no intention of taking a plane! It wasn't long before a team of six climbers, two sailors and a dog was formed to take up a challenge and realize a dream: to sail to the Americas to climb the legendary Yosemite walls. The commitment and authenticity of a team that barely knows each other at the outset recalls the atmosphere of the first epic tales of vertical exploration.
Nuptse, the unattainable absolute
Hélias Millerioux, Frédéric Degoulet and Benjamin Guigonnet dream of opening a new extreme route on the legendary south face of Nuptse. A wall approaching 8000m in the heart of the Himalayas.
"Nuptse l'inaccessible absolu" or the obsessive quest of three French mountaineers trapped by their desire for the summit.