Serial mountain-film award winner Alastair Lee - looking
smug below - has landed yet more trophies to stick in his
groaning glass-fronted cabinet with the latest commendations coming
courtesy of film festivals in Canada and Slovenia.
Vancouver
Triumph!
First off, the Patagonian Winter part of Lee's triplex - or
whatever it's called - Psyche trilogy won the Alpine Club of Canada
Award for Best Film on Mountaineering at Vancouver International
Mountain Film Festival.
The film which follows Andy Kirkpatrick and Ian Parnell's
ultimately abortive attempt to climb in the Patagonian winter caught
the jury's imagination for it's subtle British humour:
'Our choice in the Mountaineering category was a story of two
working class lads with typical self-deprecating British humour. One
climber refers to his partner as 'a crevasse poodle' who can sniff
out danger.
'These guys filmed their ascent on their own - a remarkable
achievement in itself - and knew when to leave well enough
alone. The humour they displayed while holed up for four days in a
snow cave was refreshing and highly entertaining.'
Of course the whole point of a crevasse poodle is that it's
expendable, which is where the humour lies...
Slovenian Glory
Anyway, the second award came at the Slovenian Mountain Film Fest,
where the Slovenians - renowned for their hard core mountaineering
feats - chose Set In Stone - Lee's engaging profile of Lakeland
legend Dave Birkett - as the Best Mountain Sports and Adventure Film
Award calling it an 'insightful and humourous film' which 'highlights
the unsponsored, self-motivated climbing tradition.
Both films - and both are definitely worth watching are available
from www.posingproductions.com
or you can see all three parts of Psyche at this weekend's
Llanberis Mountain Film Festival. More details of that here.
