Quando è pronto, il fieno canta

This rare documentary was filmed with the participation and personal camera of Wolfgang Gorther, a German military cinematographer of the 1st mining division, who participated in the legendary ascent of Elbrus on the night of August 21, 1942. From the beginning of the Second World War and the last international winter sports week in Garmisch-Partenkirchen follows the invasion of the German troops into the Soviet Union: Dnieper, Zaporozhy, Kharkov, Rostov-on-Don, Nogaean Steppe, Caucasus – fighting at 50 degrees below zero, military expedition into the world of ice and snow; – ascent of mountain arrows and subsequent hoisting of flags on the Elbrus at an altitude of 5,633 meters.

At the age of twenty, Sophie Taricone sets out to tell a story that began before she was born. Through archival footage shot by her parents, Kasia Smutniak and Pietro Taricone, she retraces their 2003 journey to Mustang—a remote Himalayan kingdom known as "the last Tibet"—and she follows Kasia’s return there after Pietro’s death. Spanning more than two decades, the film weaves together past and present as Kasia forges a lasting bond with a local community in Mustang and helps to establish a school dedicated to preserving its culture. Through Sophie’s journey, the film explores memory, identity, and the fragile balance between Western progress and an ancient, spiritual way of life.

Joseph Vallot and his team of guides and porters climb Mont Blanc in 1906. Their ascent will take three days. They spent their nights at the Grands Mulets refuge and the Grand Plateau refuge. This is the very first successfully filmed ascent. Joseph Vallot (1854-1925), rich heir of Lodève in Occitania. He devotes part of his fortune to the observation of the Alps, sometimes opposing the scientific community. He built an observatory, still standing today.

La Staffetta della Memoria

Set in a remote village in Asturias during the Spanish Civil War (1937), Inés, Julia, and their father José struggle to protect their home from a neighbor determined to seize their land amid the turmoil of war. Branded as fugitives' accomplices and accused by the villagers of sheltering a wanted man, their situation deteriorates further with the arrival of armed Falangists, who turn suspicion into brutal violence. 'Tierres' is a thriller based on true events, telling a story of survival, injustice, and a family's resilience in the face of war.

Making of the cinematographic shooting of "Premier de cordée" directed by Louis Daquin in the Mont-Blanc massif. In 1943. Alain Pol films the risky adventure of filming in the high mountains with a team of seventy people. The images of the making-of reveal the technical constraints encountered by the actors and technicians: falling rocks, crossing glaciers and long approach walks at altitude to the filming locations. Six actors and technicians will also be injured and the main role - that of Pierre - will be reassigned to André Le Gall following a bad fall by Roger Pigaut.

I used to think that when people said to me, "You're not like other girls," it was a compliment.

A film on mountain-climbing in Grand Teton National Park, Wyo. Glenn Exum, Virginia Garner, and Paul Petzoldt demonstrate mountaineering techniques and equipment. They reach the peak, shake hands, and rappel and glissade to base of mountain.

Viento en Contra

Maurice, who emigrated in the early 20th century to France from Parléaz, a small village in the Aosta Valley, returns as a spirit to his mountains, recounting his life and his connection to the land. Meanwhile, the stories and experiences of the local community, from the older to the younger generations, become intertwined.

Marcel Ichac accompanied the mountaineer Armand Charlet, in 1943, in the repetition of the first crossing of the Aiguilles du Diable that the guide of the Chamonix valley had made in 1925. A roped party joined on snow and ice the Col du Géant, reached at the Mont-Blanc-du-Tacul stop and on the Col du Diable. The men cross the needles by climbing chimneys, cracks and abseiling walls. They access the eastern slope of the Mont-Blanc massif which offers a panorama of the Grandes Jorasses and Mont-Blanc. Armand Charlet was the first to reach the summits of four needles above 4000 meters: the Devil's Horn, Pointe Chaubert, Pointe Médiane and Pointe Carmen; he also tells how he successfully climbed the furthest, the Isolated. Marcel Ichac shot these scenes as close as possible to his subject, he responded with this film with a “truth” cinema, the principle of which we find in his later productions.

L'Appel Des Cimes, directed by Alain Pol, is a documentary commissioned by the CAF and the various French ministries on the practice of post-war mountaineering. In 1946, climbers trained at the Fontainebleau Climbing School. Guy Poulet and Jacques Poincenot try to climb the Aiguilles de Chamonix but fail during the climbing phase. After a night in a refuge with Denise Rouzeau and the guide Pierre Allain, the mountaineers make a new attempt. Successful demonstration for those who continued the approach walk then the passage of the seracs of the glacier. On the rock, the roped party crosses a chimney and a crack to reach the summit and abseil down. Led by high mountain scouts, Guy and Jacques rediscover the glaciers and needles of the Mont-Blanc massif during the next lesson.

On September 28th, 1903, the Urban Mountaineering Expedition, headed by Frank Ormiston-Smith, left Zermatt to attempt the conquest of the Matterhorn. On the 29th, the conquest was completed by the filming of the panorama from the actual summit of the mountain. The film consists of 20 scenes and illustrates the whole ascent from Zermatt through the Hornli Ridge. A copy of the film was found in Zermatt in 1953 and was was erroneously attributed to Frederick Burlingham and dated 1901. Since then, the film has been widely publicized as the first mountain film under the title of 'Cervin 1901', but this is incorrect. Ormiston previously had made 'Alpine series' (1901), 'The ascent of Mont Blanc' (1902), 'Climbing the Great Schreckhorn' (1902) and 'Ascent of the Jungfrau' (1903). The pictures and descriptions of the Charles Urban Trading 1903 film catalogue show without any doubt that 'Ascent of the Matterhorn' and 'Cervin 1901' are the same film.

Through the memories of Fernando Towar, we journey into the life and legacy of a man born in Rocas who left an indelible mark on the city of Natal (RN) through politics, music, and the power of memory.

An ascent of 'The Tooth' via the South-east Face. The film was made by Burge Bickford and Lyman Boyer. It features Jim Crooks leading Fred Beckey on a rock climbing ascent of the southeast face of The Tooth, near Snoqualmie Pass, Washington. At the summit, the climbers find a brass tube with a Mountaineers register book inside. Illustrates Cascade Mountains climbing just before World War II. The leader never places any protection such as pitons or slings. The film focuses on the climbers' hand and foot work intermixed with mountain views.

The film shows training maneuvers by the 'Fiamme Verdi' (Green Flames) brigade, instructed by the mountaineering military school of Aosta. The maneuvers include camping, rock climbing, mountain rescue, military positions, alpine and glacier progression, and ski mountaineering. The film was produced in 1939 by the Instituto Nazionale Luce during the Italian Fascist regime.

Sound and shortened version of 'Im Kampf mit dem Berge', Arnold Fanck's second major mountaineering film, from 1921. The film follows two mountain enthusiasts, battling through a glacier area in the Swiss mountains. The mountaineers are two very prominent skiers at the time, Hannes Schneider and Ilse Rohde, who climb the Lyskamm. Arnold Fanck's film production company (Berg und Sportfilm GmbH) was acquired in 1925 by the UFA, whose cultural department reedited the film into a short and sound version in 1940 with the music of Giuseppe Becce.

"Flammes de Pierre" is the first documentary made by Gaston Rébuffat himself in 1947. It depicts Rébuffat in full ascent of the Flammes De Pierre, wild ridges in the heart of the Mont Blanc massif overlooking Chamonix. Like Roger Frison-Roche, Walter Bonatti, René Desmaison or Giusto Gervasutti, Gaston Rébuffat has written and filmed the great pages of contemporary mountaineering but above all, he knew how to talk about it with enough poetry so that it is not simply airtight race stories for spectators. Stories that have been triggers for many readers, who have come to know “stone flames” thanks to him.

Jean des Bossons is a documentary-fiction which recounts the activities of a high mountain guide in 1947. Around Chamonix Mont-Blanc, the guide Jean des Bossons, interpreter by the mountaineer Armand Charlet, accompanies on mountain hikes, Jean-Pierre, an apprentice guide. The novice, skis on the shoulder, is already clumsy. The professional taught him how to travel on skis uphill and downhill, then mountaineering in ice and rock parishes. By dint of training, Jean-Pierre has made it his job. Guides are also lifeguards. A group went to a glacier to rescue a man who had fallen into a crevasse. During this rescue, Jean des Bossons is the victim of an accident. A drama that prevents him from practicing the profession, but not climbing. The man sinks into the fog and Jean-Pierre cannot find him.

The ascent of the Matterhorn by the Hornli Ridge, filmed in July 1913 by Frederick Burlingham. The team, composed of Burlingham and four mountain guides from Zermatt, carried the 15-kilo camera and the 10-kilo tripod to the top the mountain to film the summit of the Matterhorn. Frederick Burlingham, known at the time as 'The man who kinomatographed the Matterhorn', was a traveller cinematographer and one of the mountain film pioneers. Continuing the mountain film tradition established by Ormiston-Smith, Burlingham filmed several mountaineering films largely in Switzerland, taking mountain film in a new direction of immediacy and perceived peril.