With a growing portfolio of images of the Scottish mountains photographer Richard Cross has launched a new gallery to display the images at a larger size.
New work and images from and the back catalogue will be added over the coming months.
A new national award celebrating long-term contributions to mountain culture has been set up to raise the profile of Mountain Culture within Scotland and beyond. It will celebrate the achievements and accomplishments of one inspiring individual and their outstanding contributions to Scotland’s mountains, encompassing sport, theatre, art, photography, film and literature.
Awarded at the Fort William Mountain Festival the inaugural recipient of the Scottish Award for Excellence in Mountain Culture, 2008 is Hamish MacInnes: Mountaineer, Mountain Rescue Innovator and Author.
The main screenings of the Dundee Mountain Film Festival were on Saturday at the Bonar Hall. Arrived in good time to take my seat for the morning session which included 5 films taken from the Banff Mountain Film Festival’s World Tour, followed by a presentation from Will Gadd (adventure film maker and one of the judges at Kendal).
The afternoon session saw another 5 films from the Banff World Tour, plus rare some rare footage of Currie boys. Following this came a talk from Slovakian Marko Prezelj, alpenist, photographer and seeker of experiences - once of them being film Cayesh.
Along side the films were 3 exhibitions of images, the best of these were Peter Sandground’s photos of the HMS Gannet - Royal Navy Search and Rescue Team.
The papers are abuzz with speculation that Griff Rhys Jones didn’t make it to the top of Ben Nevis when he went up Ledge Route for the BBC’s ‘Mountain with Griff Rhys Jones‘ shown earlier this year. A BBC spokesman said:
“We felt it would have been overly technical to explain to the viewer that Griff had reached a ‘top’ on the summit plateau, as, for the great majority of viewers, we are sure that to stand on the summit plateau at any of the tops would be the same as having reached the summit.”
Err, I don’t think so!
Griff later said:
“It’s irritating too, as we’d done the worst of the climb on a route most tourists don’t take. I’ll have to go back now and do it for real”.
See you up there then!
This year there were 47 Kendal Mountain Film Festival finalists competing for Andy Parkin sculptures and cash prizes in ten categories. Judges were Sir Chris Bonnington, Leo Holding, Will Gadd, Saskia Anley, Mick Pause and Mark Batey with the awards themselves being presented in the Brewery Art Centre Theatre. With nods all round to all those who have worked so hard to make the festival run so smoothly it was a fitting end to an excellent weekend of films.
Grand Prize
People’s Choice
Special Jury Award
Mountaineering
Climbing
Adventure
Film Short
Culture
Environment
Adventure Film Academy
Back at the Brewery bright and early to present ‘The Big Grey Man of Ben Macdhui’ on day 2 of the Kendal Mountain Film Festival. Spent the morning in the lounge trying to make sense of what I’d seen the day before! Another full day of films after that, with light refreshment coming from the Berghaus sponsors party. Today’s films were:
Made it to the Brewery Art Centre for 10am in time to catch the second film of the morning in the Kendal Mountain Film Festival. Exciting to be here, especially with ‘Big Grey Man of Ben Macdhui’ screening 3 times over the weekend. Managed to see a lot of films over the day, including the screenings of all 2 minute films made by participants of the Adventure Film Academy.
On Saturday evening there was a presentation of the 9 x 2 minute films produced by over the 48 hours of the Kendal Mountain Film Festival Adventure Film Academy. Coordinated by Brian Hall & Graham Hoyland and with mentoring and support from Keith Partridge, James Else and Dan Hodge the final films were all accomplished pieces, some displaying real flair which would not look out of place in the full programme.
52′ / France
Shot over the 40 days of Jean-Christophe LaFaille’s attempt on Makalu in pursuit of his dream of climbing all 14 of the world’s 8,000m peaks - solo and without oxygen. Knowing the film ends in tragedy makes watching it a poignant and painful experience. The voice-over somewhat grates, at odds with the confident pieces to camera from the husband and wife team who’s separation, frustration and worry we witness – powerless to intervene. At one point about two thirds of the way through I was struck by the thought ‘this is futile, go home to your family’, the first time a mountain film has ever made me think this. I wish he had.
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