Athletes take on the big screen at the High Five Festival!
Returning to Annecy, France, for its 13th year, The High Five Festival kicks off the new season from September 29 to October 1. Audiences will be treated to sneak peeks of 6 films over the weekend, presented by Dynastar-Lange athletes. It’s a program packed with snowsports, bridging into the worlds of art and cinema.
Matéo Socquet – Bleu Nuit
Bleu Nuit, a film starring freestyle skier Matéo Socquet and classical dancer Amélie Vital focuses on the aesthetic and artistic aspects of their disciplines. Filmed partly in Ruka, Finland, by Aurèle Mayol and Arthur Tillier, the film offers a cross-sectional glimpse at the oeuvre of these two athletes to showcase the aerial movements and the figures they sculpt in their quest for flow and fluidity. With music by Toh Imago set to the colors of the blue Scandinavian night, using theatrical lighting, the film delivers a sequence that is both poetic and dynamic, revealing the similarities between freestyle skiing and dance while highlighting their own intricacies.
Screening 2
Friday, September 29 – 6:15 pm
Clément Noël – Alpine Park
After a long season spent racing the clock, Clément is back home in Val d’Isère. At a time when most professional racers are packing their equipment away, Clément is instead putting together the future he’s always dreamed of. While he starts his Alpine Park project, he’s overwhelmed by the outpouring of solidarity from the inhabitants of Val d’Isère as they wholeheartedly pitch in to help build his unique vision of a race course. Momentarily stunned by the show of solidarity, together with friends and family he completes the project in record time. In a chaotic scene, villagers and skiers of all ages shape, test and ride the various features to create the best possible version of the park. Once Alpine Park is complete, Clément sets out to ski the course in an awe-inspiring way that demonstrates the full potential of his new snowsports concept.
Screening 5
Saturday, September 30 – 12:30 pm
Juliette Willmann – Rise
Juliette Willmann turns the page from the Freeride World Tour to ski mountaineering in her new film, Rise: a quest to bag new peaks and beautiful images. Holding nothing back, she lays bare her learning process, her feelings, her desires, and difficulties. This is a film about what it means to be a freeskier in Chamonix. Shot last season in what proved to be a different kind of winter for Juliette: a chance to log some high-mountain experience and discover more of the place she has called home for some years now.
Screening 5
Saturday, September 30 – 12:30 pm
Edgar Cheylus – Ephémère
Presented by French and European junior freeride ski champion Edgar Cheylus, Éphémère is a three-year project that aspires to reconnect with the infinite beauty of life, from the mountaintops down to sea level. Each part of this project represents one of the three natures of humanity, starting with the physical and biological dimension. Over the course of four episodes, the goal is simply to experience the journey—to discover and appreciate new places, new cultures, and meet new faces through Edgar’s passion for art, design, and glisse sports: from skiing, to surfing, and kite surfing. The first episode, "Wabi-sabi 侘寂," transports viewers from Japan to Europe, to observe skiing life during the northern hemisphere’s winter season.
Screening 9
Sunday, October 1 – 9:45 am
Sébastien Varlet – Bjørnebo
Bjørnebo (“land of the bears" in Norwegian) is a movie about discovering new mountains in Svalbard. Sébastien Varlet is a freerider from Les Gets, France, on a constant quest to find the world’s finest mountains, new peaks to ski, and new lines lay down in wild and beautiful places. After 10 years of high-level freeride competition, he made the move into expeditions and filmmaking. Last season, he set off with a group of young skiers, weary of another winter with no fresh snow in the Alps, in search of powder. His goal was to explore the unknown mountains of a small island located in the very north of Europe: Svalbard, land of the polar bears. Accompanied by four brave locals, they discovered the vastness of an infinite, isolated, and perilous playground. In the light of the polar day, facing extremely harsh weather, they became the first to ski these “new” mountains.
Outdoor Cinema (Pasquier)
Sunday, October 1 – Screening 13 – 3:15 pm
Team Dynastar – Lemonade
The Dynastar team comes together in this action-packed short film set across North America, with a group including Sander Hadley, Alex Lundstrom, Megan Digman, Anthony Carmola and Dillon Flinders.
