Les Alpes Vues Du Ciel

A contemplation of art and adventure in the southern wilds of New Zealand by both a landscape photographer and an adventure filmmaker. This film is the unexpected result of their two unique perspectives.

Roger Frison-Roche born in Paris in 1906 and moved to Chamonix at the age of 17. He was quickly adopted by local mountaineers and became the first guide in the Company not to have been born in the valley. He is also an insatiable explorer, in love with landscapes and peoples, having traveled from the Hoggar to the Sami camps in Lapland. And the author, among others, of the famous adventure novel Premier de Cordée! This documentary, made up of archive images and interviews, exposes the prolific life of a man who communicated his passion for the mountains by all possible means. A young journalist from Chamonix follows in the footsteps of Roger Frison-Roche. She meets people who knew him and others who followed in his footsteps: guides, filmmaker and author Philippe Claudel, a director, his family; on a trip to Lapland, Algeria, Chamonix.

In 1950, a French expedition led by Maurice Herzog went to central Nepal to conquer the highest peak (8,091 meters): Annapurna. The film is not only made of what we see, but even more of what we don't see. Its imperfections are the negative imprint of the adventure. Memory is the most faithful of films.

Six blind Tibetan teenagers climb the Lhakpa-Ri peak of Mount Everest, led by seven-summit blind mountain-climber Erik Weihenmayer.

Although the mountain volcano Mauna Kea last erupted around 4,000 years ago, it is still hot today, the center of a burning controversy over whether its summit should be used for astronomical observatories or preserved as a cultural landscape sacred to the Hawaiian people. For five years the documentary production team Nā Maka o ka 'Āina ("the eyes of the land") captured on video the seasonal moods of Mauna Kea's unique 14,000-foot summit, the richly varied ecosystems that extend from sea level to alpine zone, the legends and stories that reveal the mountain's geologic and cultural history, and the political turbulence surrounding the efforts to protect the most significant temple in the islands: the mountain itself.

Les Etoiles de Midi is an engaging docudrama about some of the more spectacular exploits of French mountain climbers over the last several decades. In one re-enacted story, there is a wartime escape through the mountains, and in another, a daring rescue of a pair of climbers who had been missing. The actors themselves are adept at the sport of climbing, and they give the scenes an immediacy and real daring that brings the stories alive. A combination of their acrobatics and skill and the outstanding episodes in the history of French climbing creates a winning 78 minutes.

Brian Reynolds, a double amputee below the knee athlete, has triumphed over numerous challenges throughout his life. Growing up without a role model to guide him, he has embarked on a mission to empower para athletes by demonstrating that nothing is beyond reach. Join us in this documentary as we follow Brian's journey to make history by becoming the first double amputee to conquer the legendary Leadville 100 Ultra Trail Marathon in Colorado.

In 1966, John Harlin II died while attempting Europe's most difficult climb, the North Face of the Eiger in Switzerland. 40 years later, his son John Harlin III, an expert mountaineer and the editor of the American Alpine Journal, returns to attempt the same climb.

Deceased but not forgotten. In 2017, Switzerland's most famous mountaineer, "Swiss Machine" Ueli Steck, fell to his death in the Himalayas when he was just 40 years old. Three close friends travel again to the Everest region where he died. His family in Emmental has to deal with premature death.