PKT01 Press Release General     24/10/09

7th Tegernsee International Mountain Film Festival
Treading Softly to the Top

Sold-out venues, an informed audience ready with questions, film makers with great answers, outstanding productions catering suspense, emotions and surprises: the Tegernsee Mountain Film Festival inspired its visitors and with its unique winning film, the Rumanian documentary Obcina, made a lasting impression.

‘It was a long and partly quite arduous approach, up to the starting point,’ said the artistic director of the Mountain Film Festival, Michael Pause from the Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavarian public broadcasting), at Wednesday’s opening event. By now, the peak has been reached, thousands of visitors have joined the ‘roped film festival party’ in five mostly sold-out venues so as to give themselves fully to the challenge of mountain film. The jury members
Lisa Eder (Germany), Marion Poitevin (France), Augusto Golin (Italy), Maciej Wojak (Poland) and Philipp Clarin (Germany) were faced with 86 films accepted for competition and ‘cast a very assertive eye, not letting big names impresses them,’  Michael Pause is happy to confirm. Together with Sigi Menzel from the Bayerischer Rundfunk he delights in the list of winners: ‘These are extraordinary films that defy classification among the current clichéd TV genres,’ Menzel emphasized. You will look in vain for famous names among the winners or for the typical peaks and actions that tend to hoist mountaineers onto title pages.

No, a tour through the winning films brings you face to face with 16-year-old Ioan Doyle, telling you with great passion why he insists on doing the most difficult route in all of his native Wales during his first climbing summer. And it brings you face to face with his mother who – albeit with a heavy heart – supports him all the way. A very personal portrait which convinced the jury by means of great intimacy with all protagonists and which received the German Alpine Club’s Prize for the best Alpine film.

Great Prize for a quiet film
It did not take the  jury very long to  agree which productions should make it to the very top this year: the journey leads to the Carpathians and to Stefan Cut, who, together with his family, holds out on the mountain winter after winter, even if life down in the valley would be that much easier. One gets an idea of how much time the film’s director Björn Reinhardt took to get to know and understand the people of Obcina, to develop empathy for their situation and to find images that will help his audience to understand it. Images that will also provoke a few laughs – without ever ridiculing the protagonists. ‘This film presents slow food to the mind on all levels, be it the cinematography, the sound, the production in its entirety,’ Michael Pause explains the jury’s decision to grant the Great Prize of the City of Tegernsee to Obcina.

Not a bit less impressive is the encounter with Olga and her way with time. Olga e il tempo is another film where slowness figures. ‘It challenges its audience to take that on board, to literally take the time,’ Pause says about this film by Manuele Cecconello, which earned two awards (Best Camera and Exceptional Film) in one go.

More than just watching
The question whether this slow tempo is not a bit much on the Tegernsee audience is answered with an emphatic ‘no’ by Michael Pause. ‘Maybe the positive reactions these quiet films provoke even among young viewers is a reflex against such fashion trends as speed-climbing. Moreover, there are enough amazing classic mountain action films in the programme.’
Whether it is a breathtaking climbing scene or a sequence of landscape stills, the audience wants to do more than just watch: ‘Our hosts are amazed at how intensively our viewers engage with the topic of mountain film in all its facets, how clearly they seek an exchange with film makers and how they grasp every possible chance to ask questions about the background of these films,’ Sigi Menzel says. Film makers are equally delighted with the phenomenon: ‘You have no idea how good it feels not to have to pander to ratings for once, but to experience directly how a film impacts on its viewers,’ states film maker Reinhold Rühl.

Film makers at the summit
‘Great the way you just keep crossing paths here,’ one producer states with glee. One mingles during the film screenings, at the festival forum, in the streets and in the cafés – and of course at the film maker summit on top of Mount Wallberg on Saturday, high above lake Tegernsee. There, film makers, protagonists and other notaries were networking and exchanging ideas in a casual setting as well as enjoying the magnificent view.
‘Up here on Mount Wallberg you really do note the special charm of this mountain film festival,’ Peter Janssen, the mayor of the City of Tegernsee, is happy to say. It is this kind of harmony which has made the Tegernsee festival not only into a fixed element of city life and of the Bavarian calendar of cultural events, but also into a highlight on the international mountain film agenda.
 

‘Great advertising for Tegernsee’
More viewers, more film makers and more films meant a lot more work for the organizing team around mayor Peter Janssen – for over 100 volunteers who act as evening hosts, projectionists and cashiers. For them, the festival indeed is something of a speed climb with precious little time to unwind. ‘It is an incredible amount of work, but we are all extremely positive. This surely contributes to the relaxed and agreeable atmosphere,’ Janssen says regarding his team’s immense commitment.

Natalie Petrova, director of the International Mountain Film Festival in Bansko, Bulgaria, is visiting Tegernsee for the first time and confirms this impression: ‘You can feel how the whole place is behind the festival, that it all comes together, and that is great. ’ It fascinates her that each and every mountain film festival has a distinct character, even if similar films are on show. ‘Each festival is defined by the people, the culture, particularly the mountain culture of the region. That is something you feel quite intensively here. Great advertising for Tegernsee!’ She says she enjoys a leisurely stroll through town between film dates, to admire the views, take them in – and for once to have time on her hands.