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Friday December 6 – 19:30 Euskalduna - Auditorio
In July 2024, a chapter on K2 came to an end. It was time to come to terms with the loss of Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima on the western ridge of the Karakorum colossus.
‘Gora Mendi!’ “¡Arriba el Mendi!” exclaimed Kazuya Hiraide, full of enthusiasm, when he presented his fantasy, his project, to us here in Bilbao a year ago. As the roulette wheel would have it, the worst of the number came up, and an unparalleled career in the great mountains of Asia and the world was cutshort.
It was the second time that Kazuya visited the Mendi. He shone at the international premiere of the film “Rope” and was a “Ternua Friend”. He is one of us, and that is how he transmitted it too.
Kazuya and Kenro formed a team that we felt remarkably close to, both as a festival, as an International Alliance, and above all, as people.
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FEDERATIONS OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY AND NAVARRE
Friday December 6 – 19:30 Euskalduna - Auditorio
The 2024 WOP Mendi Film Award will be awarded to the mountain federations of the Basque Country and Navarre. It has been done so in recognition of their historical contribution to mountaineering and mountain values, coinciding with the celebration of the centenary of their founding.
Promoted and championed by the mountain associations of Alava, Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa and Navarre, the Basque-Navarre Mountaineering Federation was created on May 18th 1924 in Elgeta. Nowadays, the Basque Mountaineering Federation (Basque Autonomous Community) and the Navarre Federation of Mountaineering and Climbing Sports collaborate through a permanent body called the Basque-Navarre Union of Mountaineering Sports (UVADEMO).
WOP Award-BBK Mendi Film Bilbao-Bizkaia:
• Edurne Pasaban (2023)
• Eduardo Martínez de Pisón (2022)
• Sebastián Álvaro (2021)
• Fundación Baltistán Fundazioa (2020)
• Nives Meroi e Romano Benet (2019)
• Juanjo San Sebastián (2018)
• Peter Habeler (2017)
• Sir Chris Bonington (2016)
• Josep Manuel Anglada (2015)
• Drawn film by Jeremy Collins (2014)
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SILVO KARO
Saturday December 7 – 16:00 Euskalduna Sala OD
My path as an alpinist took me from the analogue 1970’s to the fast-paced life of the new millennium, from rural countryside to brutal Patagonian storms, endless Himalayan expanses, Karakoram granite spires soaring into the sky, Greenland horizons, Indian monsoons, vertical big walls of Yosemite, and the beautiful Julian Alps. I was a member of the rock and roll generation that brought energy and rhythm onto mountain faces. Commitment, boldness, enthusiasm, and an honest friendship produced the Three Musketeers: Franček Knez, Janez Jeglič, and Silvo Karo. The big walls of Fitz Roy, Cerro Torre, Torre Egger, and Bhagirathi were the milestones of my career, which included Himalayan giants as well as 8a sport climbing. I followed the trends of cutting-edge alpinism, resulting in a strong affinity for light and fast climbing.
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SEBASTIÁN ÁLVARO
Sunday December 8 – 16:00 Euskalduna Sala OD
A lifetime on the edge of the impossible Sebastián Álvaro is a reference point for mountaineering and adventure in our country. With the television programme Al Filo de lo Imposible he brought this passion to all Spanish homes. He has dedicated three quarters of his life to climbing hundreds of mountains on six continents, some in the most remote places on Earth, on highly sacrificial, difficult and committed expeditions. But he has also climbed others that are simpler and more accessible, in places close to home, to which he always returns. This book is the fruit of that passion. Through the most fascinating mountains he has known, such as K2, Cerro Torre or Chogolisa, he tells an intimate and moving story that will not leave the reader indifferent, the story of a life on the edge of the impossible that has led him to write his most personal book to date.
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RENAN OZTURK
Sunday December 8 – 19:45 Euskalduna - Auditorio
The International Alliance for Mountain Film-IAMF 2024 Grand Prize has been awarded to Renan Ozturk. The IAMF president Jabier Baraiazarra was in Telluride during the Mountainfilm Festival awards ceremony on May and presented the award to Renan.
Renan Ozturk is a documentary filmmaker, an expedition climber, and a photojournalist. Some of his films have gained global attention:
• Meru, for which he was both cinematographer and subject and which took home the 2015 Audience Choice Award at Sundance Film Festival.
• Sherpa, where he was a cinematographer and co-director.
• The Last Honey Hunter, about the harvest of wild and toxic honey in the Hongu river valley of Nepal, is a requiem for a fading way of life and a tribute to the resilient human spirit.
• The Sanctity of Space, a film conceived as a tribute to the legendary explorer, mountaineer and photographer Bradford Washburn, retracing his steps and revisiting his iconic images.
At Mendi Film, we celebrate the award by programming the brilliant film The Ghosts Above, which Ozturk co-directs with Taylor Rees and Jay Macmillan.
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KARLOS ARETXABALETA "TXAPEL"
Friday December 13 – 16:30 Euskalduna Sala OC
Imagine you are sitting in front of a well-known climber or mountaineer, one you admire. Imagine that you both have a beer in your hand, a smile on your face, and that the words come out on their own, in complete confidence, close, friendly. Imagine that you can slip into their stories, into the anecdotes that have built their journey. And then, you collect all that you have heard and shared in a book in which reality draws a fictional scenario. That is what the Biscayan writer Karlos Aretxabaleta, Txapel, has done. He has shared afternoons with, among others, Edurne Pasaban, Juanjo San Sebastian, the Pou brothers, Alex Txikon, Oihana Azkorbebeitia, Mikel Zabalza, Alberto Iñurrategi, Ekaitz Maiz, Imanol Amundarain, Irati Anda, Iker Arroitajauregi, Iñigo Basterra... We will walk with them along the paths of memories, through far-off countries and closer surroundings, but always with nature as our flag. The prologue is written by Juanra Madariaga, and the epilogue by Ioritz Gonzalez Lertxundi.
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THOMAS HUBER
Saturday December 14 – 12:00 Euskalduna Sala OD
The new live lecture by and with Thomas Huber, which accompanies the book of the same name, the autobiography of a wild life! As a World-renowned climber and extreme alpinist, he has been on the edge of the abyss for decades. He celebrates great successes in first ascents and spectacular expeditions, but he also suffers defeats, accidents, and illnesses. When he is at his limit, he turns failure into virtue and always gets back up. His lecture is a wild and thoughtful journey through the world of Huberbuam, the Huber Brothers. While Alexander is considered a rational and analytical planner, Thomas, two years older, is considered a euphoric, somewhat chaotic and idealistic dreamer. Together, the Huberbuams are known in the climbing scene as an authentic and always motivated duo who climb countless mountains and peaks all over the world.
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