Articles
Taos Mountain Film Festival to spotlight Tibet
TAOS, New Mexico, USA, 13 August 2008 — This year's Taos Mountain Film Festival in this New Mexican ski resort town will feature films, guests and slideshows from the Tibetan Plateau, the planet's most spectacular terrain known as the Roof of the World. This region has been shrouded in mystery and myth for millennia. For centuries it was closed to foreigners and the recent opening has been tainted by oppression and violence.
The festival, slated for October 9-12, is currently finalizing its program from a wide array of submitted films covering the history, culture and topography of the high plateau, which extends beyond Tibet itself into still comparatively unvisited lands such as Ladakh, Mustang and Western China. Selected films include the 1963 BBC classic Raid into Tibet, which follows a force of Tibetan resistance fighters making an incursion across the border to battle the occupying Chinese forces, and The Fate of the Lhapas, which documents the attempts of the Tibetan shamans to preserve their old ways in exile. Other films will feature the teachings of the Dalai Lama, a pilgrimage to the sacred mountain of Kailash, and the ascent of a Himalayan peak by blind climber led by Everest summiter, Erik Wienemahyer.
Also featured at the festival will be a remastered version of the famous 1968 documentary El Capitan, presented by the original climbers and filmmakers, and many other films and presentations covering adventure sports and environmental issues from the Southwestern states and throughout the world.
Passes and information will soon be available online soon at www.mountainfilm.net
Due to the reconstruction of the major theater in Taos the festival will be held at smaller venues this year. Screenings will be sold out early so organizers strongly advise buying a pass to guarantee admission.