'The Birdman of the Karakoram' wins Best Film on Human Adventure at
St Hilaire
This is the world's no 1 flying film festival, held on the 19th of September 09. see http://www.coupe-icare.org. Bob Drury was on hand to pick up the trophy and cheque on our behalf. Ten years ago From Nowhere to the Middle of Nowhere won the peoples prize at StHilaire.
MORE AWARDS
More film festivals awards for ' Dringo i'r Eitha' - and UpsideDown Wales also wins a prize.
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AWARD WINNER
'Dringo ir Eitha' (a Cwmni Da production for S4C) wins a prize at Graz International film Festival on the 16 November 2008 and 'UpsideDown Wales' was runner up in the same category. An amazing one two in a strong field.
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Recent productions
UpsideDown Wales.
George Smith - upsidedown guru and arch obsessive leads us on a remarkable journey into his wonderful world - a journey with attitude and character. 'Like salad after a diet of chips' .
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Interview with
Joe Brown.
A rare interview with the greatest rock climber of all time, Joe Brown, 'The Human Fly'. A relaxed Joe tells George Smith the story of his sixty year love affair with Welsh rock, from his first ascents on Cloggy in the fifties - putting up routes that redefined the sport of rock climbing in Britain - to his more recent Welsh explorations at Tremadog, Gogarth and Dinorwic quarry. Using first ascent photos that have never been published before Joe chats candidly with George about his motivation and his spirit of adventure.
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Dringo I’r Eitha’ 2007. S4C ( Climbing To The Limits )
A portrait of a very talented young Welsh climber, Ioan Doyle, age 16, as he races through the grades to reach E5 in his first summer of rock climbing. His obsession gives his mother Catrin nightmares, but despite her inability to ‘let him go’, he climbs his first 8a sports climb in Kalymnos Greece, and then continues on to the big walls of Yosemite with his partner Mills, a climber who has a fear of heights.
‘Dringo I’r Eitha 2’. an S4C commission.
UPSIDEDOWN WALES / AN INTERVIEW WITH JOE BROWN
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UPSIDEDOWN WALES / INTERVIEW WITH JOE BROWN
Double A Side DVD.
Price: £19.99
Available NOW - £19.99 - also available in NTSC $30.00
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UpsideDown Wales: The funniest climbing film in the world, if not Wales.
(Nicola Wilding, UKClimbing)
UPSIDEDOWN WALES
An award winner before it was even finished, Best Film at LLAMFF 2008 - now much worse...
A
lifelong epic
of the most
trivial proportions - humour finally triumphant over gravity...
He wants to climb those roofs pretty badly, and that's what happens....
Quotes:
"Like salad after a diet of chips"
Ed Douglas
"Fantastic, incredibly funny I thought"
Joe Brown
"Dead sound and 'there'"
Jim Perrin
“My daughter laughed out loud right through the film – until I told her it was a documentary” Mick Johnstone.
"My dog died last night but then I saw UpsideDown Wales, and I'm alright now" Anita Grey.
INTERVIEW WITH JOE BROWN
A rare interview with the greatest rock climber of all time, Joe Brown, 'The Human Fly'.
A relaxed Joe tells George Smith the story of his sixty year love affair with Welsh rock, from his first ascents on Cloggy in the fifties - putting up routes that redefined the sport of rock climbing in Britain - to his more recent Welsh explorations at Tremadog, Gogarth and Dinorwic quarry. Using first ascent photos that have never been published before Joe chats candidly with George about his motivation and his spirit of adventure.
"Joe's love of the fun and adventure of climbing is as fresh as ever in this fascinating interview. His description of the techniques of placing chockstones for critical runner protection and the film of sliding down the mountain railway track are valuable additions to the history of climbing technologies." Ken Wilson.
"Fantastic, incredibly funny I thought." George Smith
"A worthy mission." Tom Cruise
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Photos
Joe Brown : Ken Wilson
Shopping List : Ray Wood
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Film editing, music and all trailers by FFATCAMP
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UpsideDown Wales Trailer from ffatcamp on Vimeo.
Joe Brown is a living legend! from ffatcamp on Vimeo
Graham Desroy on Jerry's Roof, Llanberis Pass from ffatcamp on Vimeo
REVIEWS
GEORGEOUS GEORGE - Review of UpsideDown in CLIMBER by Ed Douglas
Wild? Eccentric? Debauched? Damp? Whatever your view of Welsh climbing,
there’s much to enjoy in George Smith’s whimsical new fi lm
UpsideDown Wales, as Ed Douglas explains.
THE FUNNIEST CLIMBING FILM...- Review of UpsideDown on UKC by Nicola Wilding
Imagine touring Wales in an open-topped bus with shopping trolley wheels piloted by a slightly unhinged Alan Titchmarsh. Watching Upside Down Wales is a bit like this: a pleasant and entertaining mix of the sedate and the demonic.
George Smith is guilty of his own brand of lunacy. He's put up some fearsome overhanging routes including Barfly at Gogarth and Swift Undercut at Tremadog. By his own admission he's the kind of guy to take a guide book, ignore the lines and look for the gaps between them. And in a way that's what this film has done. It's avoided the obvious.
What we get is a refreshing alternative to those chest-beating filmic equivalents of power grunts. Is it me, or is there something really Spinal Tap about the fact grades now go up to E11?
Films about climbing often come unstuck when they attempt to answer tricky questions like: Why? The last person you are likely to get any sense from is a climber. A case in point - check out the interview with Joe Brown that also features on the DVD. The living legend has this insight to offer us: 'You either do it and know it... Or you'll never know it cos you can't convey it really...' more