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BALTISTAN FUNDAZIOA: ALBERTO IÑURRATEGI & PEDRO IBARRA
Saturday December 5 – 19:00 Euskalduna
Baltistan Fundazioa is an international cooperation NGO that works for the human, integral and endogenous development of the people of the Hushe Valley in Baltistan. Its motto is, ‘Solidarity by way of the mountains.’ The Foundation was born in 2001 as a tribute to the Basque mountaineer Felix Iñurrategi. It contributes to integral development by working to improve the children’s education, to improve the health of the valley, and to encourage the inhabitants’ acquisition of knowledge and skills through training, in order to improve socio-economic development. Moreover, it works in a respectful way with local agents, thus promoting endogenous development.
RAMÓN OLASAGASTI - CÉSAR LLAGUNO - FELIPE H. NAVARRO
Saturday December 5 – 19:00 Euskalduna
This comic book essentially covers the careers of both Felix and Alberto Iñurrategi in the mountains, but not only that. The two brothers formed one of the most solid rope teams in the history of Basque mountaineering, and together they completed an exalted path, looking for new incentives in each of the mountains they faced: routes of commitment, light and fast style, aesthetic lines... But where and how to approach the route always prevailed over the summits. Felix died 20 years ago, on the descent of the Gasherbrum II, on his twelfth eight-thousander, after an unfortunate accident. His death shocked the entire Basque Country, which was dismayed by that tragic event. Alberto completed the fourteen eight-thousanders they had planned to climb by forming a rope team with other friends. And the Baltistan Fundazioa foundation, which was revitalised in memory of Felix, also continues to do a great deal of work in that mountain area. Precisely, the work of the foundation is another of the themes on which the comic is centred. In this way, the hearts of both, the mountain and the mountaineer, remain open, offering each other value and mutual support.
JUANJO SAN SEBASTIÁN
Sunday December 6 – 19:00 Euskalduna
Inside ‘Cuánto es mucho tiempo’ (How long is a long time), Juanjo uses a selection of articles that were published over several decades in different media platforms, a few letters, writings kept in drawers and much of what he has kept inside himself to explore his own evolution: his past as seen from the present. Because perhaps, in reality, this work does not fit in with who he is today, but with who he was in the past.
Accompanied by some of the generous people who helped him along the way, and with his son Jon, in this book Juanjo takes us from the past to the future with humour, harshness and tenderness. Where we are to find him wearing trainers, hiking boots or climbing shoes, sailing in a canoe, sliding on skis or crossing the sky, reconstructing some old building or linking old texts with new words.
IÑAKI ANTIGÜEDAD - ARANTZA ARANBURU - EÑAUT IZAGIRRE
Monday December 7 – 19:00 Euskalduna
Mountain films feature a wide range of lead actors: peaks, walls, streams, people... But there are nameless beings always hidden from the spotlight that explain the reason behind the landscape. Iñaki Antigüedad, Arantza Aranburu and Eñaut Izagirre are going to propose a new way of seeing and understanding the mountains and nature.
Iñaki Antigüedad Auzmendi
He has a PhD in Geological Sciences and is a professor of Exterior Geodynamics at the UPV/EHU. He is also Head of the ‘Hydro-Environmental Processes’ Group and has participated in many projects focused on water and glacial environments. He is currently researching the possible effects of climate change on the Basque Country's water resources. In recent years, he has also been working in the Karakorum mountain range with other members of the group, analysing the geomorphological-glaciological processes that pose a danger to their communities.
Arantza Aranburu Artano
She has a PhD in Geological Sciences and is a lecturer in Petrology and Geochemistry at the UPV/EHU. She is part of the ‘Hydro-Environmental Processes’ Group, which analyses the geological record preserved in different sedimentary environments. She is studying the geological footprints remaining in both the rivers of the Basque Country and where the ebb and flow of the sea happen, as well as the sediments and speleothems of different caves (Atapuerca, Nerja, and several others in the Basque Country too) generated from the last few million years to the present day, in order to understand the impact of climate change on all of them. In recent years, she has also been working on the Karakorum mountain range with other members of the group, analysing the geomorphological-glaciological processes that are a danger to their communities.
Eñaut Izagirre Estibaritz
He has a BS in Geography from the UPV/EHU and a MS in Glaciology from the University of Magallanes (Chile). He is currently working on his doctoral project in the Geology Department at the UPV/EHU and is participating in other projects of the ‘Hydro-Environmental processes’ Group. Since he was a child, he has been fond of mountains and he likes natural environments, with a special love for ice, glaciers and high mountains. In 2015, he obtained the support of National Geographic to carry out the ‘Incognita Patagonia’ project, and presented the film of that expedition at the 2016 Mendi Film, together with Ibai Rico.
ENEKO & IKER POU
Friday December 11 – 19:00 Euskalduna
The career of Eneko and Iker, the Pou Brothers, has always been characterised by their search for innovative projects. Together, they have lived out hundreds of adventures, all over the world. The most recent ones in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. The lockdown during spring did not appease them. In fact, they emerged from it full of inspiration and ravenous to climb. Their mantras are adrenaline, new routes and challenges along with the search for freedom in a vertical world. Targets reached, yet another year, just as it has happened since their beginnings.
LUIS ARRIETA - GREGORIO ARIZ - IWONA ZIELINSKA - ANTXON ITURRIZA - TXOMIN URIARTE
Saturday December 12 – 18:00 Sala BBK
Four years before Martin Zabaleta even had set foot on Everest (1980), a group of anonymous climbers set off from the Town Hall square in Pamplona-Iruña to reach the summit of the Shakhaur (Hindu Kush - Afghanistan, 7,116m), making it the first seven-thousander done by Basque climbers. ‘Mendiak 1976’ is now the film project that will commemorate that milestone in Basque Himalayan climbing, and the film ‘Agur Everest’ is one of the main treasures of its mountain film archive. Those pioneering expeditions were also the stages where the unique brotherhood forged by Polish and Basque mountaineering was born, the proof of which will be exhibited at the Mendi Film where the most iconic and best kept relic of that time will be on show: the rosary blessed by Pope John Paul II and left by the Poles Krzysztof Wielicki and Leszek Cichy on the summit of Everest in February 1980, during the historic first winter ascent of the mountain, and recovered by Martin Zabaleta three months later as proof of the success of the Basque expedition.
ELENA SAGASETA DE ILÚRDOZ
Saturday December 12 – 18:00 Sala BBK
Climbing a mountain means much more than just putting one foot behind the other. There is a wide range of motivations and stimuli behind each climb, and Iñaki Ochoa de Olza travelled through a world full of them, looking for that place that would quench his hunger. Finally, it was the Himalayan mountain range that he took as his life's love, not only because of its wonderful peaks, but also because of its people. While you delve deep into the story, you will discover a little more about Iñaki. By walking through his dreams and joining him to the highest peaks of the world, you will understand why the people of the Himalayas stole his heart and why the SOS Himalaya Foundation was created.
BALTISTAN FUNDAZIOA
Saturday December 5 – 19:00 Euskalduna
The Baltistan Fundazioa Foundation, an NGO that supports international cooperation and works in the Pakistani Karakorum, will be distinguished with the 2020 WOP Award from BBK Mendi Film Bilbao-Bizkaia. Created by mountaineers, The Baltistan Fundazioa has been taking a committed look at that environment and its inhabitants for 20 years. The WOP Award recognises the defence of the values of mountaineering, and the Baltistan Fundazioa takes up the baton from illustrious figures such as Nives Meroi and Romano Benet (2019), Juanjo San Sebastian (2018), Peter Habeler (2017), Sir Chris Bonington (2016) and Josep Manuel Anglada (2015).
