Les Amants des Drus

Because The Mountain Was There

On May 23, 1971, a French expedition led by Robert Paragot successfully climbed Makalu via its west pillar. Makalu is one of the five highest peaks in the world, located in the Himalayas on the Nepalese-Tibetan border. Jean-Pierre Janssen and Lucien Bérardini filmed this expedition, where Robert Paragot spoke about the expedition conditions, life at altitude, and his state of mind as expedition leader. On the return to base camp, Jean-Pierre Janssen interviewed Lucien Berardini, Georges Payot, Jean-Claude Mosca, François Guillot, and Jean-Paul Paris, all of whom played a key role in bringing Bernard Mellet and Yannick Seigneur to the summit. Expedition members: Robert Paragot (expedition leader), Georges Payot, Yannick Seigneur, Claude Jager, Jean-Claude Mosca, François Guillot, Bernard Mellet, Lucien Bérardini, Jean-Paul Paris, Robert Jacob, Jacques Marchal (surgeon).

Trilogy for One Man

The most legendary 'sequence' ever achieved by a mountaineer: on 12 and 13 March 1987, in 40 hours, 26-year-old Christophe Profit managed to climb three of the highest north faces in the Alps, in winter: Grandes Jorasses, Eiger, and Matterhorn. But over and above this 'coverage' of the feat, we discover the wings, the story behind the project, the peaks and troughs of the preparations for it, and the personality of the man behind the climbs, a dancer on sheer rock faces, focusing all the energy and reflexes of life itself in his fingertips.

Agassizhorn: Mountain of Shame

In the Bernese Alps, the Agassizhorn peak memorialises Louis Agassiz – a controversial 19th-century scientist, who not only named the mountain after himself, but who claimed he had discovered the Ice Age and went on to become one of the century's most virulent, most influential racists.

Denali's Wife

The film of the first ascent of Mont Foraker (5,304 m) in the Denali chain in Alaska, by the southeast ridge of independence in 1976, which remains years after an unequaled sporting and human adventure. The 7 members of the expedition, Henri Agresti, Jean-Paul Bouquier, Jean-Marie Galmiche, Werner Landry, Gérard Creton, Isabelle Agresti, Hervé Thivierge, all came to the top after thirty days of climbing in conditions still limits. Breathtaking images where the grandiose views of the icy desert and the scenes of daily life alternate on a most rough mountains on the planet. The film received the Gentiane d'Or Festival prizes from Thirty 1977, Public Prize Festival des Diablerets 1977, SFP Festival de la Plagne in 1977.

The Dark Side of Everest

May 25, 1996 - Bruce Herrod, a South African mountaineer reached the summit of Everest at 5 p.m. On the radio, we urge him to come down as soon as possible because the descent is dangerous in the middle of the night. A few hours later, no news from him. From this South African expedition which turned into a fiasco and another expedition carried out in parallel, the testimonies of the members of these expeditions show to what extent the thirst for climbing to the top of certain mountaineers, combined with the lack of oxygen , can alter the lucidity of climbers to the point of changing their relationship to death and thus lead them to neglect other expedition members in order to ensure their victory or save their own life.

La Congenialità

Nives Meroi and Romano Benet 14+1

Miracle on Everest

2006 was one of the deadliest Everest seasons on record. Experienced mountaineer Lincoln Hall was invited to join an expedition as a high altitude cameraman. It was his second attempt to summit the mountain, having turned back just short 22 years earlier. Shortly after reaching the summit, Hall began to behave irrationally, suffering from lack of oxygen. Aided by his loyal Sherpas for over 9 hours, he eventually collapsed and they declared him dead. His family were informed and the news hit headlines. But something happened that night that science cannot explain. The next morning Lincoln Hall was found alive by approaching climbers and his dramatic rescue began. Never before has a man been declared dead so high on Everest and survived. This is the remarkable true story of Lincoln Hall’s extraordinary journey back from beyond.

The Sharp End

The Sharp End is an adrenaline-soaked journey up the world's most challenging walls: the French Alps, the Eiger, the Utah desert, the Diamond of Colorado, Indian Kashmir, Yosimite Granite, and the sandstone spires of the Czech Republic. Run-out routes, scary high-ball boulder problems, ice-covered alpine walls and all-or-nothing free-solo ascents will keep your palms perspiring.

Masters of Stone VI - Breakthrough

Once again, Masters of Stone breaks through to the cutting edge of the sport. Harder, Faster, Bolder, Newer, and more...six points of breakthrough in all.... where human edges toward the superhuman. This is the Super Bowl, Olympics, and Boston Marathon of rock climbing, all rolled into one. More than any other sport, rock climbing continually redefines its rules and resets its limits. Yesterday's impossible becomes today's warm-up as advances in mental and physical mastery combine to break new ground. Every few years the Masters of Stone series delivers a new episode that captures these breakthroughs in a tasty mix of music, character, commentary, and above all, visual action.

Des Hommes Et Des Montagnes

History, advice and demonstrations of mountaineering in the Mont Blanc massif by the renowned guides of the National School of Ski and Mountaineering from Chamonix. The film starts with an historical summary illustrating the aspirations and methods that lead man to conquer the mountains. Armand Charlet teaches mountaineering techniques and takes his students to the field for glacier or rock exercises. Gaston Rebuffat makes demonstrations of particularly dangerous climbs. At altitude, people move in solitude, cold and silence, like circus acrobats without spectators, but nothing stops the modern mountaineer.

The Call Of The Peaks

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.

Art of Freedom

The documentary film Art of Freedom answers the most poignant questions on the phenomenon of Polish expeditions to the Himalayas. Poles have reigned the highest mountaintops of the world for more than 20 years. They not only set down new trails, but new rules of behavior. They set themselves apart with an original style of climbing, endurance, conscientiousness about the overall well-being of the team - and solidarity.

Cerro Torre: A Snowball's Chance in Hell

Movie about David Lama climbing the Patagonian mountain Cerro Torre for the first time free, a mountain that has been dubbed the most difficult to climb in the world.

The Frison-Roche Track

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.

Pasang: In the Shadow of Everest

Transcending cultural barriers and consistently going against the grain, female Nepali climber Pasang Lhamu Sherpa attempted to summit Everest four times in the early nineties. Although she was not allowed to attend school as a child, Pasang did not let that stop her from pursuing her dreams. After founding her own trekking company in Kathmandu, she blazed a trail for Nepali women via her efforts to summit Everest. Proving how big you can dream and how far you can go to achieve those dreams, she left a legacy not only for the family she has left behind, but for the myriad women following in her footsteps.

The Alps - Climb of Your Life

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.

Opera Vertical

Vertical Opera is a documentary film directed by Jean-Paul Janssen, with climbers Patrick Edlinger and Jean-Paul Lemercier in the Gorges du Verdon. The film opens with a training sequence of Patrick Edlinger then he links the routes with Jean-Paul Lemercier "L'Ange en décongelation" (7a), in which he falls voluntarily to demonstrate the usefulness of the rope, then "Le Septième Saut" (7b+). Finally, the final scene, an anthology, consists of a close-up of Edlinger who climbs free solo and barefoot the route "Débiloff", still in the Verdon, above hundreds of meters of void, all to lyrical music. It is "Wie Furchtsam Wankten Meine Schritte", the aria for alto voice from Johann Sebastian Bach's cantata BWV 33, music not unrelated to the subject of the documentary: "How faltering and fearful my steps were".

The Last Great Climb

The 2013 film from Alastair Lee is an epic to end all mountain epics se t in the stunning mountains of Queen Maud Land, Antarctica. The feature documentary follows top adventure climber Leo Houlding with his tried and tested team of Jason Pickles and Sean ‘Stanley’ Leary as they attempt to make the first ascent of the NE ridge of 'the master piece of the range'; the majestic Ulvetanna Peak (2931m). One of the most technically demanding climbs in the world’s harshest environment. The film tells the story of a climber's life long dream reach one of the world's most remote and difficult summits, interweaved with the fascinating story of the mountain itself; which incredibly was only discovered in 1994. All set against the backdrop of the current age of mountaineering where few great lines remained unclimbed.