euskalkultura.eus

The International Alliance for Mountain Film (IAMF) has renewed its team last weekend at a meeting held under the auspices of the Domzale Festival in Slovenia.  Director of the Bilbao Mendi Film Festival (BMFF) was named the new president and will serve for the next three years.  The IAMF is comprised of 23 mountain film festivals plus the Musseo Nazionale della Montagna in Turin.  BMFF has been a member since 2011.

Bilbao, Bizkaia.   Baraiazarra assumes the position as a motivating challenge: “We are in a crucial moment for mountain film.  New technology has brought substantial changes and a new generation of young filmmakers has breathed new life into the genre.  There has been outstanding growth of production in quantity and quality, as well as in regards to audience numbers.  Mountain, adventure and nature films are in fashion.  the challenge of the new board of directors will be to bring greater visibility to all of this at the International Alliance for Mountain Film,” he indicated.

At the heart of the new team, Roberto de Martin is the new vice-president, representing at the Trento (Italy) festival, and vice-director of the Musseo Nazionale della Montagna in Turin (Italy) Marco Ribetti will continue serving as its coordinator, along with Basanta Thapa and Silvo Karo, festival presidents in Kathmandu (Nepal) and Domzale (Slovenia) respectively, who will now serve as directors of the IAMF.

New board of directors of the IAMP: above from left to right Silvo Karo, Jabier Baraiazarra, Basanta Thapa, Roberto De Martin and Michael Pause; below, Billy Choi and Joana Croston.

The IAMF was founded in 2000 and Jabier Baraiazarra is its fourth president, following Antonio Cembran (Trento), Mireille Chioca (Autrans) and Joan Salarich (Torello). Being an association that reaches around the world, the IAMF has representatives on five continents: in Europe, Michael Pause (Tegernsee), in North America Joana Croston (Banff), in South America Maria Ema de Antueno (Ushuaia) and in Asia, and Oceania Billy Choi (Ulju).

Its next meeting will be held at the end of the year in the Bizkaian capital coinciding with the Bilbao Mendi Film Festival (December 7-16).

The naming of Jabier Baraiazarra only reinforces the referential role played by Bilbao in relation to mountain cinema.