Discovery of skicross
Tuesday April 21th
Take part with family or friends in an introductory skicross course led by the champion of the discipline, Ophélie David.
2015 - Previous edition
Edito
“The festival is a major event, from every point of view since it celebrated its 18th anniversary last year, an event which this year again will offer us great sensations and put our senses on alert!
Yes, planet Earth has not been completely explored and, enlightened enthusiasts, there are still beautiful adventure areas to discover. Personally, I doubted it and wondered how to still offer spectacle, emotions and surprise, in sound and images, around our small and fragile earth… Until Sylvain Tesson whose name, pen, words and the humor that is closely linked to this festival, did not make me change my opinion, just a year ago.
His interventions here in Val d’Isère have given me a new taste for discovery and I am, thanks to him, now convinced that we can still put our daring and curiosities at the service of a living screen, giving relief to our dreams of escape and the desire to meet others, towards new horizons.
Val d’Isère is therefore and will remain a land of sharing, a wonderful meeting place for everyone, whether the public is informed or not, TV or cinema professionals, sporting adventurers and explorers… In short, the crossroads of all emotions!”
Laurent Bignolas
Ceremony' master
Laurent Bignolas
He traveled through 80 countries and associated territories, surveyed the slopes of the largest mountain ranges in the world (the Himalayas, the Andes), crossed the Atlantic twice by sail, joked with the Indians of the Amazon, the peoples of the Sahara and those of the far North, flew over African lakes and those of North America, had breakfasts in the Australian Bush or in the heart of the townships, paddled on the Zambezi River, between hippos and crocodiles, mushed a team of twelve dogs between ice floes and ice caps, fished for lobster in the Pacific, tested the most rustic railways, explored Robinson Crusoe’s island, crossed the border between the Urals and Siberia on horseback, crossed the most beautiful reserves African women, climbed and descended the highest dunes in the world, approached wild animals and faced human stupidity, while making friends on all continents!
After having presented, among others, the JT and 19/20 on France 3, the program “Faut pas rêver” for ten years, he now hosts on France Ô, the programs “Ô bout du monde” and “Les Aventuriers d’ Explo.”
Jury's president
Antoine de Maximy
For more than 35 years, Antoine de Maximy has traveled the planet to make documentaries. His steps have taken him to nearly 70 countries to extreme places, such as the depths of the Pacific Ocean in an exploration submarine at a depth of 5,000 meters, to the gigantic ice cathedrals of the Greenland ice cap. and on the snow-capped peaks of Peru at almost 7,000 m above sea level.
For several years, he has also presented television shows. Currently he is traveling the world, alone, for the series “I will sleep at your place” which he directs and presents. His goal: to sleep with people he meets randomly, without any preparation.
Guillaume Nery
Freediver
Guillaume Nery
Freediver
Faithful to the teaching of the Nice school, Guillaume devotes all his time and energy to his passion: freediving.
He progressed through contact with Loïc Leferme (5 times world record holder in No-Limits), who over the years would become a model, a guide and a close friend. In 2002, he became the youngest world record holder in the history of freediving by diving to a depth of -87m using the sole power of his fins. This is the beginning of a great adventure. Guillaume then beat the world record 3 more times, becoming team world champion in 2008 and individual world champion in Greece in 2011 with a dive to -117m.
Today, he dives to a depth of -125m, a new French record. But it was thanks to his film “Free Fall”, which he made in 2010 with his partner Julie Gautier, that the Nice native’s career took off again. In just a few days, the images went around the world and revealed a new approach to freediving, artistic and poetic.
Since then, the couple has embarked on new film projects, including “Narcose” and most recently “Ocean gravity”. Much more than a sport, combining aesthetics and performance, Guillaume practices freediving as an art, his art of living.
Ophélie David
Freestyle skier
Ophélie David
Freestyle skier
Ophélie moved to Alpe d’Huez in 1986, she joined the Ski Club and started on the FIS circuit. She quickly switched to Hungarian nationality (that of her father), which allowed her to participate in the Lillehammer Olympics in 1994 and the World Championships in Sierra Nevada in 1996. Then, headed to the USA, on the pro circuit, where she wins the title of rookie of the year” (1997/98). Returning from this experience, she returned to competition in 2002 but this time in skicross and wrote her prize list at the same time as this new discipline wrote its pages of nobility (see prize list in the box).
Always in contact and in the heart of nature, she practices other activities such as mountain biking, stand up paddle, surfing, windsurfing, climbing and yoga.
Manuel Herrero
Actor
Manuel Herrero
Actor
Manuel Herrero was born and raised in Toulon in a sports family. He played rugby in Toulon then at the Paris Université Club, alongside his studies at Sciences Po and Essec. After graduating, he traveled the world for a year and was recruited by a business strategy consulting firm in the City of London. End of the first half!
A sabbatical year later, he reconnected with never-admitted youthful aspirations, wrote a fiction screenplay and made his first documentaries on sport. In 2006, he went in front of the camera and embarked on the adventure of New Explorers alongside Canal+ with a collection of 52 minutes dedicated to the discovery of cultures from elsewhere through sport. Twenty-five films from the four corners of the planet will follow. The fruit of all his travels, he directed Play in 2012, an opera film on sport broadcast in prime time on Canal+ before the London Olympic Games.
In addition to his documentary films, he regularly collaborates with major brands (BNP, Rolland Garros, Red Bull, Adidas, etc.) for which he produces communication operations and institutional films.
On the sidelines of the festival
Monday
18
April
5.30pm
THE RIDGE
| Direction | STU THOMSON, DANNY |
| Duration | 8 min. |
| Edition | MACASKILL PRODUCTION CUT MEDIA |
For the first time in one of his Danny Macaskill films, the renowned trialist gets on his bike and returns to his native lands, on the majestic Isle of Skye in Scotland. For him a walk, for the spectator a moment of high aerobatics along the famous Cuillin Ridgeline.
Wednesday
22
April
4pm
L’ENVOL D’UN AIGLE
| Direction | MURIEL BARRA, JACQUES-OLIVIER TRAVERS |
| Duration | 52 min. |
| Edition | LATO SENSU PRODUCTIONS - USHUAIA TV |
A fabulous legend of eagles has been told for generations…
Plunged into an indefinite era, the film traces the story of an improbable encounter: that of Roï, the last fishing eagle in the wild, with Kaaba, a female of the same species, captive for years. The first, free but alone, shares with us the majesty of his flights in the heart of wild nature, but also the harshness of his life. Kaaba grew up behind bars. Out of passion for eagles, a man decides to take her out of her cage to teach her to fly.
“Ecological autonomy” workshop
Wednesday April 21th
Come build low-tech innovations with Corentin de Chatelperron to become autonomous in your next adventures. The young engineer from the film “Gold of Bengal” will offer you various DIY survival systems, future innovations for the planet.
His project: to use collective ingenuity to invent the technologies that people and the planet need most.
Skiing with an eagle!
Thursday April 22th
Take part in the wildest ski descent in Val d’Isère! Take advantage of this opportunity to go down the Grand Pré slope accompanied by the eagle from the film “Freedom – the flight of an eagle”.
Introduction to freediving
Thursday April 23th
We invite you to learn about freediving with champions Guillaume Néry and Morgan Bourc’his. The two high-level freedivers do us the honor of sharing their passion with the festival public. On the program, breathing exercises, relaxation and practice in the water!
Photo exhibitions – Congress Center
ENVOL, ambassadrice des Ecrins
Photographer - Abdou Martin
The project was born from the desire of Abdou Martin, president of the Compagnie des guides Oisans-Écrins, to mark the 150th anniversary of the first ascent of the Barre des Écrins with a symbol of future and union. This project is innovative because for the first time a non-religious work of art will be placed on a high peak in the Alps. The artist Christian Burger, ice and snow sculptor faithful to Val d’Isère and creator of the festival trophies, created the Envol sculpture especially for the occasion. It was assembled in several pieces, on the backs of men, starting from four valleys of the massif, during the reconstruction of the historic ascent in June 2014. Returned at the end of the season, it has since become an ambassador of this majestic territory, which is the Massif des Écrins and travel.
URBAN ESCAPE
Photographer - David de Rueda
Aboard a van, between New York and Los Angeles, the artist David de Rueda traveled through the country’s abandoned hotels, churches, banks, schools and amusement parks in pursuit of a character with fiery red hair, Shinda . Often abandoned in total disinterest, hidden in urban or rural areas, these places are for David de Rueda a wonderful specter of our society.
UN MONDE DE GLACE
Photographer - Laurent, Olivier and Tanguy
Find photos of the adventure of freedivers Laurent, Olivier and Tanguy, who set off for the shores of the Antarctic Peninsula to swim with the large marine mammals of the Southern Ocean. Photos by Joël and Laurent Marie.
SOLIDREAM
Photographer
Three years of friendship and adventure of childhood friends will be presented in the exhibition photos on the film “Solidream”. Find images of the Atacama and Australian deserts, the Amazonian forest and the Bolivian highlands.
LOUIS MEUNIER
LES CAVALIERS AFGHANS
In this ageless country, we do not speak in nationalities, but in peoples. We don’t count in kilometers, but in days of travel. When we leave each other, we say Zenda Bashi, be alive, because existence is uncertain. » Louis Meunier delivers a powerful initiatory story in the Afghanistan of legends and spirits: Ashvagan, literally in Persian, “the Land of Horses”.
Winner of the 2014 Pégase Prize.
Golden Fleece from the 2014 adventure book.
GUILLAUME NERY
PROFONDEURS
A man’s life is the time interval between his first and last breath. Guillaume Néry’s dives are between a last and a first breath. Each immersion of this constant weight freediving world champion is a spiritual journey, an inner journey towards better self-knowledge, a rebirth of sensations that have disappeared since the foundation of the world.
BRIAN MATHÉ, MORGAN MONCHAUD, SIPHAY VERA
SOLIDREAM
In three years, Brian Mathé, Morgan Monchaud and Siphay Vera have cycled around the world. Setting out in 2010, the three friends have traveled more than 54,000 kilometers. After West Africa, they reach Ushuaia from where they board a sailboat for the Antarctic Peninsula. At the end of the crossing of the Americas on their steel mounts, they descend the Yukon aboard a raft. Via Oceania then South-East Asia, they pedal across all of Eurasia.
LIONEL DAUDET
LE TOUR DE LA FRANCE EXACTEMENT
A crazy bet? Lionel Daudet, a solo climber who had eight frozen toes amputated on the north face of the Matterhorn, has attempted others. But to tour France, exactly, following step by step, to the nearest meter, the route of the border and the coast, what beautiful madness, what an adventure yet so close to us!
CORENTIN DE CHATELPERON
L’AVENTURE DU TARA TARI
A young man of twenty-six years old with no knowledge of solo sailing; a boat built in six months using mainly jute fiber and recycled materials; fourteen thousand kilometers from Bangladesh to France across the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean; six months of navigation from the banks of the Ganges to La Ciotat via the Bays of Bengal and Aden, areas renowned for pirate attacks: here is a summary of the fabulous adventure of Tara Tari and Corentin.
Bernard Moitessier Literary Prize 2011 Pierre Loti Prize 2012 René Caillé Prize 2012.
Florence Arthaud
Cette nuit, la mer est noire
How, on the occasion of this 19th Adventure and Discovery Festival, can we not think of Florence Arthaud?
This March we were to celebrate the release of her book “Ce nuit, la mer est noir” in which she recounts her fall at sea, off the coast of Cap Corse. In a few moments, the sea, my reason for living, will become my tomb…”.
This book was to appear with a banner: The devil did not want me… Florence fell from the sky and we miss her freedom, her generosity, her strength and her excesses, the adventure that she carried high and far. “Tonight, the sea is black” Florence Arthaud (Arthaud edition).
Sylvain Tesson
Berezina
The adventure is also Sylvain Tesson who we think of and who takes us in the footsteps of the Grande Armée aboard his Ural 745 model 1966 flat twin, a Russian motorcycle with an adjacent basket. Da skorava Tovarich!
“Berezina” Sylvain Tesson (Guérin edition).
