Programme - Friday 18. October 2024 - Day

The documentary accompanies a team of seven adventurers during a 40-day expedition. They traverse the Norwegian archipelago Svalbard from south to north, battling extreme weather conditions and treacherous terrain as well as their physical and mental limits. With a mixture of captivating narration, breath-taking footage and a pinch of humour, the film captures the Arctic wilderness, its wildlife and the protagonists’ triumphs and tragedies.

Nathan Paulin might have racked up the highest number of runs of any highliner, and he has turned his passion into a profession. Despite the apparent ease with which he balances over deep abysses on a one-inch band, every highline is a special challenge. For more than a year, the camera accompanies his preparations for one of the world’s longest lines: across more than 7,000 feet from the seashore to the mythical Mont Saint-Michel.

The poetry of moving images: Two friends take time for friendship and cover 370 miles on foot across Austria’s familiar foreignness. One to walk to his homeland, the other to celebrate being twosome. Their shared path welds the two men together. In the rhythm of their walking, in the rhythm of the days, with each new sky, a photographer and a knifemaker experience the festival of friendship.

The history of snowboard culture, told from a Swiss perspective. About the pioneers, tinkerers and outlaws who brought skateboard culture to the ski slopes in the late 1980s. About the great hype and the blossoming of a global youth culture in the 1990s. Up until the fight against commercialisation and the takeover of snowboarding by the International Ski Federation FIS – Swiss people always shaped the international snowboard scene.

He builds skis. And he has been working on this persistently for quite a while. His work is his passion, and yet his passion is more than just skiing. After 15 years at the Graubünden ski company ZAI and a short attempt with his own company, Simon Jacomet chose a new path. Today, he makes his skis without investors in his small studio in Rabius. Any ski bearing his initials is created according to his highest ideals, without compromise. Jacomet’s philosophy is a mixture of art and drive.

Among the three Zermatt brothers Simon, Samuel and Martin Anthamatten, Samuel is probably the best skier: Even in the steepest terrain, the state-certified mountain and ski guide stands on his freeride slats as if he were one with them. Samuel is an instinctive skier who combines exceptional talent with vast alpine experience. In this portrait, he explains why, despite the great dangers associated with big mountain skiing, he would not choose a different life.

Mountain and trail running enthusiasts Susann Lehmann and Magdalena Kalus are close friends. Together, they face the Eiger Ultra Trail: a distance of 155 miles and 65,616 feet (20,000 m) of altitude with a time limit of 100 hours. This film follows the competition without script and without the possibility of any re-takes, documenting the problems and obstacles that (almost) force the women to fail. But Susi and Maggy don’t give up so easily. A story of ultra running, of losing and winning – and of lucky peaches!

The film accompanies Alex, Sarah and Lea on an ambitious tour across the Alps. Within six days, the three friends want to ride their mountain bikes across 40,000 ft of altitude and a 211-mile distance from Bavarian Garmisch-Partenkirchen to Lake Garda in Italy. However, from the get-go, the tour does not go as planned: The weather does not cooperate, a bridge is washed away. On the third day, Lea has to abandon the tour after a serious fall with a broken arm. Sarah and Alex struggle over steep climbs to Lake Garda, where they hope to reunite with Lea.

2,500 solo kilometres by paraglider through Tajikistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal. François Ragolski is not only a world champion in paragliding, but also an experienced adventurer with a generous sense of humour. He masters amazing challenges in the most remote places on earth: “It took me 60 days and gave me more memories than I could have ever dreamed of. Up and down all the time …” XXL exploration and adventure!

In 1982, at the age of 30, Pius Walder was shot dead while poaching. The Austrian judiciary viewed this as intentional bodily injury with a fatal outcome. In the larger history of East Tyrol, the fate of the poacher Pius is a sad side-story. In his hometown of Villgraten, on the other hand, local families are divided to this day. The documentary presents the history of the Walder brothers and contrasts their mystification into “Alpine Robin Hoods” against newly gained insights and facts.

As a musician, mountaineer and skier, Maurice Baquet (1911-2005) was always on the move. His life revolved around two things: the cello and the mountains. He once described himself as a “cello skier”, the only one in this category, which prompted world champion skier James Couttet to remark: “Of all the skiers I know, he is the best cellist.” André Navarra, professor at the Conservatoire National Supérieur, topped this: “Of all the cellists I know, he is the best skier.”

Six young climbers make up the German Alpine Club’s 2020–2022 women’s expedition squad. In the wilderness of Greenland, they have to face physical and mental challenges, because mountain sports are not merely a matter of muscle, but above all of the mind. The ambitious project requires strength, stamina, trust in one’s rope partners and the ability to turn back. During training, the women have to grow together as a team, because they can only achieve their goal together.

The documentary tells the story of Toni Gobbi (1914-1970), a well-known Italian mountaineer and mountain guide from Vicenza, who, after studying law, decided to turn his passion for the mountains into a profession. He celebrated mountaineering successes worldwide – from the Alps to the Andes and the Karakoram. Much more importantly, however, Gobbi revolutionised the mountain guide profession by reconciling urban and mountain culture and thus broadening the horizon of both.

25 years ago, bears were reintroduced in the Italian Trentino. Nowhere else in the world do predators and humans live in such close proximity. After a deadly bear attack on jogger Andrea Papi in 2023, “problem bear” Gaia (JJ4) becomes the target of a feverish search. Meanwhile, the dispute over how to deal with the animal escalates. Grimme Award winner Andreas Pichler accompanies the Forest Guard’s special bear unit through the Trentino and reveals the fierce conflict between animal rights activists and the local population.

Filmmaker Veronica Ciceri follows the traces of the longest known movement of any wolf across Europe. “Emme” migrates from Switzerland to Hungary, covering 1,200 miles. While the filmmaker follows her protagonist, her external journey becomes an internal one. In her documentary, Ciceri describes her experience as an immersion into the intermediate world of human and wild animal.

Veronica Ciceri received the Otto Guggenbichler Award for a Junior Filmmaker last year.