Satyajit Ray's poetic documentary was commissioned by the Chogyal (King) of Sikkim at a time when he felt the sovereignty of Sikkim was under threat from both China and India. Ray's documentary is about the sovereignty of Sikkim. The film was banned by the government of India when Sikkim merged with India in 1975. The ban was finally lifted by the Ministry of External Affairs in September 2010. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2007.
When you embark on an expedition to the other side of the world, things rarely go as planned. In the spring of 2024, mountaineers and friends Charles Dubouloz and Symon Welfringer flew to the Himalayas with the goal of climbing Gyachung Kang, a peak of over 8,000 meters on the Tibetan side. But faced with the conditions they encountered there, they revised their plans and headed towards Hungchi, on the Nepalese border. There, they opened a 1,700-meter route in pure alpine style, named The Headless Rider.
Derek Hayes and David Flora explore unique areas and stories of weird phenomena of the "Borrego Triangle," an area full of anomalous phenomena including cryptids, ghosts, disappearances, and UFOs.
Brian Blessed plays George Mallory in this intrepid recreation of his ill fated 1924 climb to Everest. Meeting Sir Chris Bonington, Rheinhold Messnerhe learns of the pitfalls that await him before setting off for his epic struggle with the mountain. Against all odds he reaches 26000 feet on the North face of Everest, and is a changed man
In October 1984, Pierre Béghin, an engineer from Grenoble, and Jean-Noël Roche, a high-mountain guide, completed the Himalayan ascent of Dhaulagiri (8,172 m). The expedition's context: seven people crossed Nepal to Muri, collected accounts from trekkers—including that of the author Robert Rieffel—and attended Sherpa prayers at base camp. Then, the two of them embarked on a rocky and snowy route without supplemental oxygen. At over 5,000 meters, on the mountain of winds, Jean-Noël Roche made a paragliding flight. The climbers brought back footage with their Super 8 camera from 6,500 meters, but only photographs have been able to confirm their presence on the summit ridge of the seventh highest peak in the world.
On April 29, 1983, three French alpinists reached the summit of Jannu, having climbed its 7,710 meters via the very steep southwest spur. The success of Luc Jourjon, Jean-Noël Roche, and Roger Fillon echoed that of the 1962 national expedition, which had been celebrated by Lionel Terray alongside the leading climbers of the time, Desmaison, Paragot, Magnone… But in 1983, the goal was no longer simply to wave a French flag on a virgin summit. The focus was already on a more "alpine" style, and there was even the idea of descending from the top… by air!
Annapurna, premier 8000 à ski
Dhaulagiri - 1ère hivernale française 1987
Hollywood's fascination with werewolves has fueled a galaxy of scary movies, but the centuries-old legend that inspired them may be the most horrific of all. In the 1700s, more than 100 French villagers were mauled to death by a mysterious creature. A cryptozoologist and a criminal profiler combine their talents in this fascinating study of both the original incident and the hold werewolves continue to exert on our imaginations.
Blind climber Erik Weihenmayer and his team's highly successful ascent of Mount Everest along with four other remarkable milestones on the mountain. Time magazine called this the most successful Everest expedition of all time.
A man walks in more or less familiar places, walks there as if crossing unknown lands, never encountered before. At each step, he observes the world before his eyes, forcing him to fix it and freeze it in an “other” space and time, on the celluloid of his old camera. This man is Kurt Diemberger, climber and filmmaker of high peaks and distant lands. He is 82 years old, but he lives in the "now" rather than the past, continually exploring the land beneath his feet, in places dear to him in Austria, Italy and the Dolomites, as if he continued his research through the eye of the camera he uses for the observer.
Uses astonishing visuals to tell the intersecting stories of George Mallory, the first man to attempt a summit of Mount Everest, and Conrad Anker, the mountaineer who finds Mallory's frozen remains 75 years later.
A series of werewolf sighting are reported in the early 1990s in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, and the community becomes a werewolf hotspot.
For years strange sightings of an unidentified creature have been reported on the East Norfolk coastline. FACT OR FICTION? investigates these sightings and showcases the stories of those who have encountered it along the coast.
In 1975, Raymond Renaud, Yves Pollet-Villard, Maurice Gicquel, Maurice Cretton, Jean Coudray, Yvon Masino, Walter Cecchinel, all teacher guides at ENSA in Chamonix, with the help of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, set out to cross the 2 peaks of the highest mountain in India. After 43 hours in a truck, 10 days of slow and difficult approach walking, helped by goats for the portage due to lack of sherpas, the base camp is set up on the Nanda Devi glacier. Two groups share the two eastern and western slopes, 3 kilometers separate them: the goal being to meet between the two summits by the ridge. But on the big day, with the monsoon, bad weather arrives with wind and snow, we will have to give up. Like the French expedition of 1951 which lost two mountaineers, Roger Duplat and Gilbert Vigne, to whom Paul Gendre and Louis Dubosc pay tribute.
For years, people have wondered if Bigfoot is real, or just a myth. Today, reporter Madi Hewett is investigating weird sightings in the New Zealand bush. She is accompanied by New Zealand Cryptid Research And Bigfoot Sightings (C.R.A.B.S) as they investigate the try to prove the existence of Bigfoot in New Zealand.
A tragic expedition to the Himalayas, told by the great mountaineer Reinhold Messner, who lost his brother there in 1970, swept away by an avalanche during the descent. An epic tale set against a grandiose backdrop.
The north face of Chamlang, nearly 2,000 meters high and culminating at 7,200 meters, is one of the last great unclimbed faces in the Himalayas. Benjamin Védrines, who had scouted the face during a previous ascent of Chamlang in 2019 with Nicolas Jean via the northeast couloir, decided to tackle it with Charles Dubouloz, a very strong mountaineer but a novice at high altitude. Snow slides, suspended bivouacs, pitches of mixed climbing and vertical ice… The gamble paid off for the Frenchmen, who opened a new route, "À l'ombre du mensonge" (1,600m, 5+, m5+, 90°), after four intense days on the north face—a magnificent first ascent of a coveted summit, as a duo, in alpine style.
In 1959, the mutilated bodies of nine hikers were found in the Ural Mountains. Fifty years on, speculation surrounding the story endures.
As darkness fell on May 10, 1996, a fast moving storm of unimaginable ferocity trapped three climbing teams high on the slopes of Mount Everest. The climbers, exhausted from their summit climb, were soon lost in darkness, in a fierce blizzard, far from the safety of High Camp at 26,000 feet. World-renowned climber and filmmaker David Breashears, who aided the rescue efforts back in 1996, now returns to Everest to tell the fuller story of what really happened on that legendary climb. Through remarkably intimate interviews with the climbers and Sherpas many who have never spoken before on American television Breashears sheds new light on the worst climbing tragedy in Mount Everest s history.