Zanzara e Labbradoro, the Roberto Bassi film première at Arco

Zanzara e Labbradoro is a documentary about Roberto Bassi that traces the story of him as a person and as climber, analysing his role in the development of free climbing and changes that have taken place in mountain culture during the last few decades. The documentary gathers the testimony of some of the world's greatest climbing champions and Bassi's closest friends, and include: Manolo, Mauro Corona, Stefan Glowacz, Jerry Moffat, Marco Furlani, Alessandro Gogna, Rolando Larcher, Gianni Bisson, Diego Mabboni, Ennio Dalmut, Marco Preti, Palma Baldo, Giovanni Groaz and Marco Curti. The documentary is split into five chapters: from the Dolomites to the crags, the lifestyle of the free climber and Arco, the crag Gola di Castel Toblino, competitions races, Roberto's personality.

Roberto Bassi was born in Milan in 1961, to a family of Trentino origin. He subsequently lived at Trento and started climbing aged 15, via the legendary Scuola Graffer. His first climbing instructor was Marco Furlani and with him, Gigi Giacomelli and Elio Piffer in 1979 Bassi travelled to Yosemite in California; a journey that would forever change his approach to climbing and, through him, that of entire generations. It was no longer important to conquest the summits, but to breach extreme difficulties without any help whatsoever. The wave of free climbing swept through Europe. On his return Roberto and friends began exploring the crags in the Valle del Sarca and started to climb the valley's first routes. In 1980 he got in touch with Manolo contact and invited him to "come down from the mountains": together with Heinz Mariacher they established the hardest routes at the crags Nuovi Orizzonti, Spiaggia delle Lucertole, San Paolo and many more. In just a few years Arco and the Sarca valley became one of the world's most important free climbing centres, transforming into a crossroad for climbers from Germany, France, England... and Bassi was the true, silent protagonist. In 1985 the first competition on rock at Bardonecchia, in which Roberto was one of the few Italian climbers, provided a further change and paved the way to competitions. Roberto competed for a few years with excellent results, but then as the extreme beauty of moves and the joy of discovery gave way to increasing competitiveness, he decides to abandon competitions and focus his attention on seeking new crags, increasingly secret, increasingly silent. On 28 September 1994, a month before his friend Fabio Stedile, a terrible accident took him away "... just like James Dean."

>>> Roberto Bassi – news on the 10th anniversary of his death

ZANZARA E LABBRADORO
Storie, mani e silenzi di Roberto Bassi (Stories, hands and silence by Roberto Bassi)
Italy September 2014, 62 min
Written and directed by Lia G. Beltrami
Produced by: AURORA VISION - SULLE STRADE DEL MONDO
Photography: Lucio Tonina
Director of photography: Emanuele Rainaldi
Executive producer: Andrea Morghen
starring (in order of appearance): ‘Manolo’ Maurizio Zanolla, Mauro Corona , Stefan Glowacz, Jerry Moffatt, Rolando Larcher, Marco Furlani, Alessandro Gogna, Giovanni Groaz, Palma Baldo, Diego Mabboni, Giovanni Bisson, Ennio Dalmut, Marco Preti, Marco Curti, Roberto Tavonatti, Andrea Zanetti
Narration: Matteo Gadler
Editing: Lia Beltrami, Emanuele Rainaldi, Marianna Beltrami
Original music by: Alberto Beltrami, Cameron Bruce
Camera: Emanuele Rainaldi, Alberto Beltrami, Andrea Morghen, Nicholas Biaudet