Mountain Film in Telluride
MOUNTAINFILM in Telluride was founded by a handful of dirtbag climbers with a desire to capture their passion on film and share it with the community. According the Rick Silverman, the Festival Director from 1993 - 2003, "twenty-nine years ago, a group of climbers and friends cut the ribbon on Mountainfilm in Telluride. Largely the plan of Telluride locals Bill Kees and Lito Tejada-Flores, the notion was inspired by Tejada-Flores’ trip to a film festival in Trento, Italy, to screen his newly minted Fitzroy and Kees’ idea that Telluride’s historic Sheridan Opera House would make an ideal setting for an American version of a mountain-related film festival. Throw in the available climbing and skiing, enough good beer, the best of the era’s 16mm films, and an idea got rolling. Add neighbor Royal Robbins, the American Alpine Club’s Bob Craig, and you could darn well print a letterhead. Former Climbing owner/publisher Michael Kennedy and Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard joined up shortly thereafter and an idea crept toward becoming an institution. That first Mountainfilm consisted of a mere dozen or so films spaced out over three evenings. The daytimes were spent climbing. For over a quarter of a century, the Festival has sustained the founder’s dream—evolving (mutating perhaps) but still true to the core idea that friends, adventure, passion, and powerful ideas are as seductive as ever. "