In 1979, a group of
mountain enthusiasts put together a festival of 25 films in
Telluride, Colo., to celebrate mountains and the people who love
them. Twenty-four years later, Mountainfilm still focuses on rocks,
but has expanded to include cultural and general environmental
topics among its more than 40 films and art exhibits, symposia,
slide shows and lectures.
This year’s festival,
May 24-27, features a four-film program about the effects of dams
on rivers and the controversial topic of dam decommissioning. The
program will premiere Troubled Waters, a film by Telluride locals
George and Beth Gage that spotlights the Colorado, the Snake, the
Columbia, as well as the Ventura River in California and the
Penobscot and Kennebec rivers in Maine. The Gages and former
Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt will also take part in a
panel discussion about rivers and their
ecology.
Other film, lecture and gallery programs
will commemorate the 100th anniversary of Ansel Adams’ birth, mark
the U.N.-designated International Year of the Mountain, and draw
attention to cultures under siege, such as the Navajo Tribe and
nomadic tribes in northern Africa.
For more
information on Mountainfilm, visit www.mountainfilm.org or call
970/728-4123.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Mountainfilm.
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