17
to
20
April
2023
Watch trailer
Always desire.
“A Russian novelist, Ivan Goncharov, invented the character of Oblomov in the 19th century, a hero who embodies the figure of the absolute lazy person.
His home is his sofa. Its goal: a nap. His pleasure: doing nothing. The Russians coined the word Oblomovism to designate this penchant for total renunciation.
Behind Obmomov’s apparent resignation lies a more serious illness than simple fatigue. It is the end of desire that is in question here. And the end of desire is the door to death.
Against the figure of Oblomov, I prefer that of the adventurer.
He doesn’t give up anything. He is steeped in his dreams, he thirsts to live them. He likes to get up and say yes to life. He takes his ice ax (or his rudder, it depends), he carves the route. He is never tired since he chooses life in the open wind and the wind never dies.
He covets a summit, a desert island, a wall, an ocean, a jungle, a steep corridor… The Earth is a set table, he wants his feast.
He offers his adventure to the world and thereby, unlike Oblomov, he rejects any nihilistic temptation.
Sometimes he fails. No matter, he stood up under the sun, quivering with desire.
Once you have reread Goncharov’s Oblomov, open the program for the 26th edition of the Val d’Isère Adventure & Discovery Festival.
Sometimes I have the impression that our time has lost its fury for life and its rage for action, its confidence and its desire. Zero libido, as Doctor Freud would say.
At least, every year, in Val d’Isère, for four days, I reassure myself. »
Sylvain Tesson.
Direction: Hamid Sardar
This is the Grand Prix of the festival. The winning film will be screened after the closing ceremony.
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Director of the Red Taiga protected area in Mongolia, Tumursukh has taken on the mission of preserving natural spaces and wild animals by converting former hunters into Forest Guardians. A slow evolution of mentalities suddenly compromised by the intrusion of a family of bears in a village …
Direction: Sébastien Montaz
This prize for technical quality is awarded in memory of the climber Alain Estève, former head of GMHM (Groupe Militaire de Haute Montagne) who lost while climbing in 1997.
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Dive into the mind of French alpinist Charles Dubouloz as he acheves Rolling Stones (5.10 A3, or M8, 1100m) a rarely repeated route on the fabled north face of the Grandes Jorasses above Chamonix, France.
He spent six days with five bivies on the wall, pressing on through strong winds and low temperatures of -30°C (-22°F), sustaining some frostbites to achieve one of the most acclaimed winter solo ascent in the Alps. « I’m scared, I quiver, I’m cold…but I have this intense drive to set foot on the summit”
Direction: Maxime Aubry
Founded in 1933 in Paris, TITRAFILM specialise in subtitling, localisation, accessibility and post-production. TITRAFILM are proud to be the film festival’s Official Technical Partner.
TITRAFILM will reward the winning producer of the Prix Espoir with post-production audio services worth €4 000.
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A team of eight French men goes on expedition to Peru to travel, discover and ride high peaks.
Funny and dynamic, this movie tell about this team story in the middle of the Andes, high perched on some of the most beautiful mountains in the world. A human and sporting adventure carried by the ride, that’s Upurkushun.
Direction: Matthieu Fournier
For the past ten years the Ushuaïa TV Channel has
supported the festival by giving an award for best director, with the winning film being broadcast on the channel. The film is chosen by the editorial team of Ushuaïa TV.
Felix is a French engineer who built his own bike-house. A canoe-bicycle, atypical way of travel to meet people. A very modest lifestyle that he shares with his Chicken “Chépa” (I don’t know in French). For this movie, we shared some weeks travelling with him in the Swiss Alps between the mountains and the Rhone.
Direction: David Arnaud
At the entrance for the screening of each film of the competition, members of the public receive a ticket that allows them to vote. Ballot boxes marked « Not at All », « A Little », « A lot », « Loved it » are situated at the Congress Centre exit. The tally of the votes is made in proportion to the number of spectators.
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Adventurer, competitor, daughter, friend, pioneer, hero, and badass human are all words used to describe French kayaker, Nouria Newman. In Wild Waters, we follow Nouria as she prepares to become the first female to run a 100ft (30m) waterfall; we watch her grow from a young, keen Olympic hopeful to one of the greatest kayakers of all times – male or female.
However, running some of the world’s hardest whitewater isn’t Nouria’s biggest life challenge. Realizing that the expectations placed upon her as both an athlete and as a woman weight heavily on her decisions and ambitions, she pushes back to make her own path.
It is this central aspect of her life— this refusal to conform to others’ expectations— where Nouria is able to use kayaking as a way to transform into her truest self, and become a once-in-a-generation kayaker.
| Schedule | 17 H 45 |
| Direction | Alex Lopez |
| Language | VF |
| Duration | 52 min. |
| Schedule | 19 H 15 |
| Direction | Pierre de Parscau |
| Language | VF |
| Duration | 52 min. |
| Schedule | 21 H 00 |
| Direction | Sébastien Montaz |
| Language | VF |
| Duration | 69 min. |
| Schedule | 17 H 30 |
| Direction | Alan Corcoran |
| Language | VOSTFR |
| Duration | 60 min. |
| Schedule | 19 H 15 |
| Direction | Maxime Aubry |
| Language | VF |
| Duration | 52 min. |
| Schedule | 21 H 00 |
| Direction | Hamid Sardar |
| Language | VOSTFR |
| Duration | 90 min. |
| Schedule | 17 H 30 |
| Direction | Matthieu Fournier |
| Language | VF |
| Duration | 52 min. |
| Schedule | 19 H 15 |
| Direction | Romain De La Haye-Serafini (Molécule) et Vincent Bonnemazou |
| Language | VF |
| Duration | 66 min. |
| Schedule | 21 H 00 |
| Direction | David Arnaud |
| Language | FR |
| Duration | 85 min. |
| Schedule | 17 H 30 |
| Direction | Rémy Masséglia |
| Language | FR |
| Duration | 52 min. |
| Schedule | 19 H 15 |
| Direction | Nicolas Alliot |
| Language | VF |
| Duration | 52 min. |
Edito Sylvain Tesson
“In the 19th century, Russian novelist Ivan Gontcharov created the character Oblomov, a protagonist who incarnates the figure of the ultimate idler.
His homeland is his sofa. His life’s aim is napping. His favourite thing is doing absolutely nothing. The Russians adopted the word “oblomovism” to designate this penchant for utter apathy.
Behind Obmomov’s apparent resignation hides something more serious than simple fatigue. Here, we are dealing with a complete lack of desire, and a lack of desire is the doorway to death.
Completely opposite to Oblomov, I prefer the role of adventurer.
A person who stops at nothing. They shape their dreams and are eager to realise them. They love getting up and saying yes to life. They grab their ice axe (or their tiller) and forge their own path. They are never tired because they have chosen to live life to the full.
They lust after the peaks, a desert island, a wall, an ocean, a jungle, a steep mountain couloir… The Earth is a like a table dressed for dinner, and they are ready for a feast.
They see the world as a playground for their adventures and, unlike Oblomov, they sweep aside any nihilistic temptations.
Sometimes they fail. But what does that matter, when they have risen with the sun, bubbling over with desire?
One you have re-read Gontcharov’s Oblomov, open up the programme for the 26th edition of Val d’Isère’s Adventure & Discovery Film Festival.
Sometimes, it feels like our era has lost its passion for living, its confidence and its desire. Zero libido, as Freud might have said.
Thankfully, every year in Val d’Isère, these four days restore my faith in adventure.”
Sylvain Tesson.
Cédric Gras
Cédric Gras was born in 1982. He led long-haul trips, nurtured a passion for the mountains and studied geography before spending a decade in the post-soviet space. Having been awarded the Albert-Londres prize for writing in 2020, he wrote and presented a documentary series on the Arte channel. This year, he is publishing a new book: Alpinistes de Mao.
Domitille Kiger
Domitille Kiger
Freeflying world champion Domitille leads a free and thrilling life in the air.
At age 15, she discovered parachuting and quickly moved into freeflying, for which she has won a number of national and international titles.
In 2013, along with some friends, she created and developed a new discipline, “dynamic flying”, which is done in a wind tunnel.
Highly committed to women’s sport, since 2013 she has been a member of Joyriders, an international collective of women specialising in aerial sports.
In 2017, she teamed up with four business partners to create zerOGravity, an indoor skydiving centre that opened in August 2020 next to Futuroscope.
Alban Michon
Alban Michon
Alban Michon discovered underwater diving at age 11 in Troyes and became a diving instructor at age 21.
In 2010, he discovered North Pole and dived under the Arctic icefield for 45 days. Then he went straight onto a 1,000km kayaking expedition in Greenland.
His latest solo expedition saw him spend 62 days on the legendary Northwest passage in Northern Canada.
In 2020, he opened France’s first “Explorer School” in Tignes, with the aim of training and helping futurs adventurers. Today, he is preparing for his next expedition, “Mission Biodysseus”: living for 6 months underneath the Arctic ocean.
Linda Lorin
Linda Lorin
Born in 1973, Linda Lorin is a journalist and French radio and television presenter.
Since September 2007, she has recorded the voice-overs for the Avis de sorties programme on France 5, and since 2012 she has presented on Radio Nova.
Every day since March 2017, she has presented the Invitation au voyage programme on Arte.
Monday
17
April
Cérémonie d'ouverture
Léo Taillefer
Auditorium - Conference Centre
17h
CHARVET FPV
| Direction | Colas Feuillie et Léo Taillefer |
| Duration | 1.30 min. |
At the opening ceremony, Léo Taillfer will present a sneak preview of Charvet FPV, which was filmed in Val d’Isère in March 2023.
Wednesday
19
April
Carte blanche Ushuaïa TV
Cinéma de Val d'Isère
15h00
A LETTER TO LAKE BAIKAL
| Direction | Julie Monière, Lionel Thillet |
| Duration | 52 min. |
| Edition | CICADA Production & Ushuaïa TV |
Julie Monière sets out to explore the legendary Lake Baikal. In close contact with Mother Nature, Julie hopes to reconnect her senses and find her place in the world.
Monday 17th of April at 3pm - Aqua Leisure Complex
A MEMORABLE CLIMBING SESSION!
Charles Dubouloz, protagonist of the film “De l’ombre à la lumière” (From dark to light) invites you to join him for a climbing session.
10 people maximum
Climbing equipment available to hire
Own equipment recommended
Mandatory registration through Val d’Isère Tourist Office on +33 (0)4 79 06 06 60
Tuesday 18th of April at 11am - Vallée du Manchet
LEARN ABOUT DOG SLEDDING!
The Adventure and Discovery Film Festival invites you into the heart of the Manchet valley in Val d’Isère for an unforgettable ride on Evolution 2’s dog sled.
Mandatory registration and bookings through Val d’Isère Tourist Office on +33 (0)4 79 06 06 60
Tuesday 18th of April from 2pm to 6pm - Médiathèque
Have you always dreamed of flying like a bird? To soar above Paris? To get a little high?
So come and experience the game Eagle Flight at the Media Library!
Free / From 12 years old / On reservation / Half-hour slots
Wednesday 19th of April from 8am - Bottom of the Face de Bellevarde
Maxence Cavalade will attempt to break his own SPEED-RIDING RECORD : 56 runs and 47,768m, in this sport that combines skiing with mini-wing paragliding. He will take off from the top of the Olympique gondola.
Postponed to later in the week in the event of adverse weather conditions
Wednesday 19th of April, from midnight - Doudoune Club
Romain de la Haye-Serafini, director of the film “29173NM”, who also goes by the stage name Molécule, takes you on a journey with his music.
Free entry
Thursday 20th of April at 11am - Aqua Leisure Complex
Nouria Newman shares her tips and advice in a one-off KAYAKING SESSION in Val d’Isère’s Aqua Leisure Complex.
Mandatory registration and bookings through Val d’Isère Tourist Office on +33 (0)4 79 06 06 60
Every day from 4:30pm - Conference Centre
Find the most beautiful memorises photos of the expedition to Peru “Upurkushun”
Every day from 4:30pm - Conference Centre
Admire an EXHIBITION OF PHOTOS from Nouria Newman’s adventure.
9 am – Barbara Candas will facilitate literary encounters with festival authors each morning.
Free sign-up required at the Tourist Office or the festival bookshop. Limited availability.
Book sales will take place at the festival bookshop every day from Monday 17 to Thursday 20 April from 4:30 pm to 10:30 pm and also during book-signing sessions.
Tuesday
18
April
Literary breakfast
Cédric Gras
Hôtel Ormelune
Literary breakfast with Cédric Gras
Alpiniste de Mao
| Author | Cédric Gras |
Xu Djin and Liu Lianman had never even seen mountains before, let alone tried mountaineering in any way, shape or form. In 1960, the Chinese Communist Party named them as “designated volunteers” and, alongside their comrades, they were ordered to conquer Qomolangma – the ancestral local name for Mount Everest. They were also tasked with placing a bust of Mao Zedong on the rooftop of the world as a symbolic gesture, apparently to highlight their definitive victory over Tibet. In that climate of intense propaganda, the whole country neglected to realise that the highest mountain summit on our planet had already been reached seven years earlier from the Nepalese side by Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay.
Wednesday
19
April
Literary breakfast
Alban Michon
Ô Ccrazy Barms
Literary breakfast with Alban Michon
L’école des explorateurs
| Author | Alban Michon |
Alban Michon, an expert in all things extreme, shows us that anything is possible in his comprehensive manual for explorers. From setting up the project and its financing to survival techniques in a hostile environment and surpassing oneself, this extraordinary explorer devised this book to be an expedition that we can follow from the initial idea to its implementation. Sitting somewhere between a practical guide and a coffee-table adventure book, Alban Michon lifts the lid on his explorations, inspiring us all to aim high and achieve our dreams.
Thursday
20
April
Literary breakfast
Sylvain Tesson
Hôtel La Savoyarde
Literary breakfast with Sylvain Tesson
Blanc
| Author | Sylvain Tesson |
| Edition | Gallimard |
Alongside my friend Daniel du Lac, a mountain guide, I set off from Menton on the Mediterranean coast to cross the Alps on skis, heading for Trieste via Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia. From 2018 to the end of winter 2021, we made our way through the snow. An unblemished sky, a world with no limits, only our effort marked the passing time. I felt like I was on an adventure into beauty, diluted into substance. In the whiteness, all is erased – hopes and regrets.
Why did I love wandering in this purity so much?
Volodia Petropavlovsky
La Dernière Frontière
At the age of twenty-one, the author set off to cross Alaska in a canoe. He followed the course of the Tanana and then the Yukon to the Bering Sea, 2000 kilometres from his starting point. Along this largely uncharted route, bivouacs are never a safe option whether you’re at the edge of the forest at the mercy of bears or staying with locals, prone to binge-drinking sessions under the flaming skies of the long polar days. Taking us beyond the usual descriptions of the Final Frontier that we find in Jack London or National Geographic, the author comes into contact with the natives, discovering their culture and their fascinating land. This generous account, rich with humour, opens up another world by plunging us into the unknown.
Meet the author between screenings: Monday and Tuesday at the festival bookshop.
Jean-Yves Fredriksen
Vol au-dessus de l'Himalaya
The first crossing of the Himalayas in a paraglider. Four months of solo travel to realise a dream in a true test of strength where herculean task meets human fragility.
On a summer’s day in 2016, Jean-Yves Fredriksen climbed a small peak close to Duchanbe in Tajikistan on foot. The first peak at the western extremity of the Himalayas. He carried a backpack weighing almost 50 kg: food supplies, tent, duvet, stove – everything he needed to be self-sufficient for the 4000 kilometre crossing of the longest mountain range in the world. In a paraglider.
Book signing session after the screen of Lumdo Kolola on Thursday 20 April at 8:30 pm at the festival bookshop.
