Zakopane Film Festival 2006

At the end of October the small Polish town Zakopan celebrated its second Mountain Film Festival. The winner of the Sportkania z Filmen Gorskim was L'Abisso by Alessandro Anderloni, whilst the spectators award went to Premeny Tatier by Pavel Barabasz.

PlanetMountain

November 2006

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At the end of October the small Polish town Zakopane celebrated its second Mountain Film Festival. According to those there, it turned out to be a complete success, with an important collaboration with the Trento Film Festival, special guests in the form of Mauro Bubu Bole, Piotr Pustelnik and Piotr Morawski, and a bouldering contest won by Kinga Ociepka and Robert Bunsch. The winner of the Film Festival was L'Abisso by Alessandro Anderloni, whilst the spectators award went to Premeny Tatier by Pavel Barabasz.

SPORTKANIA Z FILMEN GORSKIM 2006
by Gabriela Kuhn
Zakopane lies at the foot of Tatra Mountains. This small Polish town is normally known as a ski and mountain sports resort, but from the 20th until the 22nd of October it transformed into the center of the Meetings with Mountain Film - Spotkania z Filmem Górskim. The idea of the festival originated and grew in the minds of a group of people with a driving passion for the mountains. A place such as this one, deep in the middle of the mountains, deserved a festival! Therefore, from big ideas and with the experience of the first edition, the Meeting 2006 certainly took a deep breath. The Trento Film Festival aired international films, Mauro Bubu Bole arrived as a special guest, Krzysztof Zanussi, a famous Polish director visited the festival and some of the strongest Polish climbers participated in boulder competition.

Trento, the oldest and the most prestigious Film Festival in the world for mountain, exploration and adventure aired eleven films. Thanks to the cooperation which began this year it was possible to screen various international films about climbing, skiing or caving: Klettern Am Limit - Huber Buam by Malte Roper; Letze Ausfahrt Titlis by Jochen Schmoll; Lignes de pente by Gilles Chapas; L'île verticale by Stéphane Granzotto; Quattro passi nel regno del fantastico by Romolo Nottaris and Gianluigi Quarti; Fight Gravity - Klettern in Frankenjura by Kurt Albert; 7 parades 7 continentes: Totem Pole by Jabier Baraizzarra; Omaggio a Partick Berhault by Luca Bich and Platinium by Todd Soliday. My climbing life by Christian Core and L'Abisso by Alessandro Anderloni and Francesco Sauro were selected for the competition. For all those who could not attend the Trento Film Festival in April/May it proved to be unique opportunity to see the films from the last year edition - the cinema was full.

Numerous Polish, Slovak and Italian films took part in the competition. The spectators awarded the Grand Prix to Premeny Tatier (2006) by Pavel Barabasz. The film talks about respect and humility that shall never be forgotten in front of nature. Moreover, for its naturalistic aspect the film won the award of the Director of Tatra Mountains Park. The main sponsor of the festival awarded the film Abisso (2005) for being shot in the most extreme conditions. A Polish representative of Marmot handed the award directly to the winners, who arrived in Zakopane from the very bottom of the cave Spluga della Preta, which lies under the Lessini Mountains. During a break between one question and another, Francesco Sauro told one of the stories dating from the eighties. Somebody from the crowd still remembered a Polish expedition, which although accompanied by an inseparable (until the entrance) communist inspector, descended all the way down to the Black Room situated at 800 meters under the ground. Few recalled though, that in token of freedom in that room the expedition team left an inscription "Solidarnosc". Unfortunately, Alessandro Anderloni could not come to Zakopane, but his message was presented. To understand how big the effort was to shoot the film, it should suffice to say that the director himself was not a speleologist, but in order to tell the story of the Spluga della Preta he became one, by descending to the very bottom of one of the most famous and difficult abysses in the world.

An important Italian accent: our special guest Mauro "Bubu" Bole.
It was his first time in Tatra Mountains in Poland. These were few, but intense days. Besides being sought-after by the television, mountain magazines and newspapers as well as being chased by both female and male fans he gave a really good and spontaneous presentation about his climbing life.

This year is a particular moment for Bubu. Marked by courageous decisions, 25 years have passed since he started his climbing life. Talking about the festival in this context, Bubu said: "maybe one of the deepest moments was the one at the end of the evening when a young boy came over to the stage to shake my hand and to say thank you! I still wonder why? But I hope to have given him some energy that can be useful in his life both on and off the walls! All in all those are the things that I am really thrilled about!" The discussion with the spectators exceeded explanations and stories about his impressive climbs to enter into a philosophical phase. Bubu, with his admirable naturalness, never failed to answer in an interesting or surprising manner. A question: "is climbing for you the way of life or just one of its ways?". Bubu: "I'd prefer to say it is the very way of surviving!" There were many more dialogues worth quoting, but with little space left, all that needs adding is that Bubu demonstrated an excellent form and capacity in entertaining the public, in participating in the parties almost until sunrise and in climbing the day after, still half asleep and just before his departure when he climbed 8a+ pitches at a crag in Tatra Mountains - smiling constantly.

Archive films from the sixties and the seventies were truly appreciated by the spectators.
Krzysztof Zanussi, a famous Polish director honored the festival with his presence and screening of two films which take place in the mountains and touch upon fascinating human stories. The Spiral (1978) - awarded at Cannes and Mountains at Dusk (1970) - the film which back in 1973 won the Prize of the Nations during the Trento Film Festival.

Famous Polish himalayan mountaineers Piotr Pustelnik and Piotr Morawski presented their slides from "The Himalayan Triptych: Cho Oyu, Annapurna and Broad Peak." The presentation was accompanied by fascinating stories, perfectly balanced between various comments which were serious and technical as well as funny and ironic. Bubu, who saw the presentation commented: "I didn't understand a single word, but from the images and from the way they were talking and moving, I think that I understood the whole adventure and I really enjoyed it! Great guys - they have the right spirit!"

TOPR - the alpine emergency service in Tatra Mountains was of a big support for the festival. Moreover, they organised a photo exhibition in sepia recalling the past "At each call. TOPR yesterday and today". Besides all that, there was a mountain book fair and other photographic and painting exhibitions - mountain culture at its best!

The events of the festival surpassed its own name "Meetings with Mountain Film". Never before had so many boulderers travelled to Zakopane and, what's more, never before had a bouldering competition taken place there! On Saturday evening everybody witnessed a big "mental revolution": 40 competitors climbing the boulders in the shade of Tatra Mountains. Robert Bunsch and Kinga Ociepka won the "Zako Boulder Power 2006". It's worth mentioning that last summer Kinga, at a mere age of twenty, redpointed Geminis in Rodellar in Spain and in doing so joined the exclusive club of women climbing 8c. The competition attracted a big number of spectators, who packed into the tight space in front of the old cinema "Sokó" where in the meanwhile the screenings were just about to finish - but only give way to a party which, on Friday night, went well ahead into the early morning hours.

It was a great festival - a mix between true mountain passion and professionalism. All of this in the Tatra Mountains. However, I'd prefer to leave the final judgment to all those who were there and who made the festival a reality. In the meantime September 2007 remains a new challenge to transform the festival into meeting point for those who love mountains in all its forms. As said by one of our Italian guests Francesco, it became, once again, a FEST-ival, in it's truest sense as the Latin origin of the word means, a true party. A "FESTA" of the mountains.

Special thanks.
First of all to all the participants in Zakopane and all of those who reached us from numerous Polish and foreign cities! Very important recognition to Trento Film Festival! To all the sponsors - to start thinking already about the next year! Bubu - thanks for your passion for the mountains, which you know how to pass on to the others! L'Abisso Team - your presence helped so much to understand how big was the challenge of exploration in the Spluga della Preta! Last, but not least, to the organizational team, who put in all their mind and energy, and to all the volunteers that made this event happen. Thank you and see you next year.Gabriela Kuhn

Short Cut Tsaranoro wall Madagascar Hermann Eber

L'Abisso (2005) by Alessandro Anderloni

Mauro Bubu Bole during his presentation

Premeny Tatier (2006) by Pavel Barabasz

Zako Boulder Power 2006

www.sportkani.zakopane.pl