As pretty much every year since 2010 when the first edition took place in Vienna, I visited the Freeridefilmfestival. The event started as a platform, where smaller, mainly Austrian freeride productions where shown.

Over the years, the Austrian Freeride film Scene prospered, got bigger, also because there was such a platform as the FreerideFilmFestival (among others) which connected different production crews. Now it’s a huge, one week long film tour, in different European Countries. This year the tickets for Vienna sold out quickly, they even organized another showing in the afternoon.

The links included in the following short descriptions of my highlights will directly lead you to different websites, where one can buy the movies. That’s also a way to support the sport…

Next thing I have to admit: I wasn’t able to be at the festival the whole time, as there was a model for my Master Thesis in Architecture in the CNC-Milling in University, which I had to look after…so I left in between and came back. To get a full insight on all shown films, please visit http://www.freeride-filmfestival.com/filme/

The most inspiring film for me definitely was “When the mountains where wild”, about freeriding in the Albanian Alps. The film gave a quite humorous insight into the adventure, the filmmakers/riders/cutters didn’t took themselves too serious and there was some bad-ass riding in a pretty remote area quite some distance away from civilization. The film also includes great shots of the Albanian daily life and the riders accessed their lines mostly via skinning.

In the end, why we ride is because of having fun.

Big Cinema, with a dramatic story line is “Onekotan – The lost Island”, this production is definitely not just a freeride film, but it is a film, also interesting for people who are not too much into the sport. Couple of guys decide to go skiing on a very remote Siberian Island, which proves to be way more complicated, dangerous and adventurous than they imagined. In the end the have to get rescued.

A totally different film is “Die letzte Grenze – Sidustu Jadar”, not so much about powder or perfect conditions, rather gnarly condtions. The film most interesting message are it’s questions, very well put into words from Flo Orley: Why do we always again risk our health for the adventure? What does it mean for the people at home? The riding happens in the beautiful and extreme landscape of Iceland, the film also develops into a small portrait of Iceland with focus on the extreme friendly locals. I couldn’t find out where to buy it, i will add the link as soon as I know.

I really nice portrait of two riders which I highly respect, Aline Bock and Lena Stoffel is “way north”, a short documentary about an adventure on the Lofoten Islands.

As usual, the event was also a meeting point for Viennese Freeriders and the riders, who took part in the movies, which resulted in nice chats…thanks for visiting us here in the (nearly) flat lands…

Looking forward to next year!