Press Release / Opening 17 Oct 2024
Tegernsee Mountain Film, 21st International Festival from 16–20 October 2024
Mountaineering as Life Purpose
The 21st International Mountain Film Festival opens with four very different films: “Gipfel-Liebe”, “Crying Glacier”, “Diciassette” and “Let it Bärn”. The Opening Night at Tegernsee Castle’s festive Barocksaal ballroom shows a broad thematic spectrum and proves that mountain film is not just about spectacular action on the crag or high-altitude records. Some of those involved in the making of the opening films made the journey to Lake Tegernsee to attend: among them Germany’s leading mountaineering couple Robert and Daniela Jasper, documentary filmmaker Claus Hanischdörfer and Swiss filmmaker Thomas Horat. The evening’s surprise guest is the Iranian director Marjan Khosravi, who was able to fly in from Tehran despite the current political situation.
Two hosts come on stage for the Opening Ceremony of the 21st International Mountain Film Festival. “Today, there are two of us,” says Michael Pause at the beginning and mischievously explains to his guests: “Anyone as old as me is a hazard. Having looked around, without a casting call, Tom Dauer is the ideal successor!” Festival veteran Michael Pause, who celebrated his 20th festival anniversary last year, will finally retire from co-organising the festival at the end of this year’s event. Tom Dauer will be solely responsible for the program from 2025 onwards. And Dauer comments on what that means with a broad grin: “The prep work was incredibly hard.”
The duo brought four of the submitted 256 films to the Opening Night, “to show how broad the mountain film spectrum has become,” says Pause. “Gipfel-Liebe” (Summit Love), the first film screened in the packed baroque ballroom after the welcome speeches, couldn’t be a better fit. After all, the old and the new Festival Director have something in common with the majority of the audience: their enthusiasm for the medium of film – and for mountaineering.
The 45-minute documentary “Gipfel-Liebe” is a family portrait depicting 30 years of love and roped adventures shared by Daniela and Robert Jasper with all their highs and lows. Free from hackneyed tropes, it grants deep insights into the lives of two mountain pros. Especially on the Eiger North Face, the two have mastered spectacularly difficult routes. “A typical mountaineering relationship,” says Daniela, a pioneer in women’s mountaineering who graces the stage together with her partner Robert. “Constantly up and down.” The film accompanies the couple during the first free ascent of their route “Northwest Passage” on the Eiger North Face (Robert: “my living room”) and sheds light on stages of their marriage: serious accidents, crises, disputes and top alpine performances.
After the interval, the audience embarks on a beautiful, almost bizarre journey of discovery. With the short film “Crying Glacier”, sound artist Ludwig Berger shows how important it is to hear the world around us. The film, in which sound plays the leading role, accompanies him on one of his many visits to the Morteratsch Glacier in the Swiss Alps, where he collects fascinating sounds that could disappear forever. Director Lutz Stautner addresses the topic of climate change; melting glaciers symbolize what is in store for our children and grandchildren.
Other film choices also evidence that the Festival Directors Michael Pause and Tom Dauer share a knack for powerful issues. The short film “Diciassette” (Seventeen) is a deeply touching film, because Swiss filmmaker Thomas Horat discovered the last remaining contemporary witness of the partisan era in Northern Italy (Lago di Maggiore). He did so almost by chance, as he recounts on stage, and his film allows her to revisit tragic events. An impressive personality, a moving story, sometimes told in the format of a graphic novel. Is it a mountain film? Yes, the festival curators agree. Because it is to the mountains that the partisans retreated. The fourth, last and shortest film of the evening “Let it Bärn”, reappraises in modern fashion the “conquest of urban space by boulderers” in the Swiss capital Bern.
Once again, numerous guests of honour are present at the Tegernsee Mountain Film Festival. Many of them attend the Opening Night: filmmakers, producers and protagonists, notaries from politics and society, sponsors, supporters and mountain enthusiasts. Among them are Germany’s primary mountaineering couple Robert and Daniela Jasper, documentary filmmaker Claus Hanischdörfer, Swiss filmmaker Thomas Horat and Iranian director Marjan Khosravi, who has travelled from Tehran. Tegernsee’s Second Mayor, Michael Bourjaun, stands in for an indisposed Johannes Hagn and opens the Mountain Film Festival for the first time. In his welcome speech, he expresses his delight with the approximately 5,000 spectators who loyally appear every year. According to Bourjaun, there are only winners, seeing that each film finds its audience here.
But which of the competing films will receive one of the coveted awards at the end? The international jury is currently deciding this. There are many films to choose from. More than 80 films are being screened until the Awards Ceremony on Saturday evening (from 7 p.m. at Barocksaal or afterwards at the ARD Mediathek) at five venues (Barocksaal, Schalthaus, Quirinal, Medius, Sporthalle) as well as in the new Movie Tent at Kurgarten. Some tickets remain for most screenings.
Further Information: Sonderbüro Bergfilm-Festival Tegernsee, Phone +49(0)8022-1801 – 37; bergfilm@tegernsee.de, Internet: www.bergfilm-tegernsee.de Details regarding all films and the fringe programme are available online.
Advance ticket sales at: Tegernsee Tourist Information, Phone +49(0)8022-92738 – 62; tegernsee@tegernsee.com; or online: www.bergfilm-tegernsee.de or www.muenchenticket.de.