“It always seemed to me that adventurers were happy people. In any case, beings endowed with a strong dose of joy. To leave is to love life.
Conversely, it is tempting (and how easy!) to lament the fate of the world. When you are naturally melancholic, you just need to open the newspapers to dig a little deeper into your neurasthenia! On every page, bad news, misfortunes, warning signals, lit everywhere. So we lament, we wallow in nostalgia, and life passes like a Beethoven adagio, “gloomy and ghostly”.
But now intrepid travelers, mountaineers, sailors and scientists are fighting back against despair and affirming that the time has come to surpass themselves! They refuse to whine about the absurdity of existence and the misfortunes of the world. They take an ice ax, put on skis, grab a rudder, a microscope or a snorkel and set off on the trails to see what life is made of and if there is no way to enhance its flavor, to approach its limits, to increase its value! Their adventures then sound like hymns to joy. Get out of the closet, grumpy people!
Paul Valéry said nothing else in his Bad Thoughts (a reading that young audiences are currently eager to read): “out of a thousand individuals, a small number feel and look at life as an attempt, a means, an adventure”. This small number meets every year in Val d’Isère at the Adventure and Discovery Festival and I am very happy to have the opportunity to meet them, to introduce them to you.”
Sylvain Tesson
Direction: ANDY COLLET
IN GORA – Réalisation : Andy Collet – Production : Mathieu Joubert
This is the Grand Prix of the festival. The winning film will be screened after the closing ceremony
See the trailer
Riders from the Picture Family joined Val and Tim, who define themselves as «a modern nomad couple», for a road trip through Europe. Aboard their renovated American school bus, entirely converted in to a large campervan, Val and Tim travel the world chasing powder snow along the way. This one month journey throws our riders into the extraordinary daily life of these two unconventional nature lovers. As they travel through Austria, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Montenegro, they encounter the locals and ride the best mountains along their way.
Direction: LUC MARESCOT
700 Requins Dans La Nuit – Réalisation : Luc Marescot – Productions : Le cinquième rêve – Les Gens Biens Productions – Andromède – Arte
This prize for technical quality is awarded in memory of the climber Alain Estève, former head of GMHM (Groupe Militaire de Haute Montagne) who lost while climbing in 1997.
See the trailer
Modern science shows that sharks actually hunts in packs. In a groundbreaking experiment, five of the most experienced underwater scientists in the world, dive at night among 700 starving sharks, the largest school ever recorded. It took them 3 years of preparation to dare descend among the predators. Their goal is to fit electronic trackers on one hundred squalls to monitor their movement and organization during nocturnal hunting. The challenge is to produce a 3D mapping which will reveal the sharks’ movements, gathering points, attacks and strategies, on an unprecedented scale. This study will revolutionize our understanding of the world’s greatest predator.
Direction: BEN PAGE
FROZEN ROAD – Production & Réalisation : Ben page
Hiventy is the new name for the Monal Group including Monal, RGB, Digimage and Mediadub which are all major companies in the audiovi-sual world. The group offers a wide range of high quality audiovisual and cinematographic services. Hiventy is delighted to support the Val d’Isère Adventure and Discovery Film Festival and proud to award the “Prix Espoir” (prize for the most promising new-comer) which will win Hiventy technical services.
See the trailer
Self-shot and edited whilst cycling around the world, this film charts Ben Page`s winter journey into the Canadian Arctic at the end of his bike ride up through the American continent. Inspired by Jack London’s words, ‘any man who is a man can travel alone’, he sought an adventure of pure solitude. He soon realized that the harsh reality of travelling in such an incredible environment was far from the romantic image he had started out with. The Frozen Road is an honest reflection on his solo trip; of the wonder, terror and frustration he experienced when riding through the unforgiving emptiness of one of the world`s ‘last great wildernesses’.
Direction: MOON CHANG-YONG, JEON JIN
BECOMING WHO I WAS –
Réalisation : Moon Chang-yong, Jeon Jin – Production : Sonamu Films & Prosum
See the trailer
Padma Angdu’s world turns upside down when the monastery where he belonged expels him. Although he is recognized as a ‘Living Buddha’ in Ladakh, the only thing that holds him together is the unfaltering love of his teacher. High expectations from his community leads the young Rinpoche into rebellion as he enters adolescence. After having waited years in vain for his disciples from Tibet, the soon-to-be teenage Rinpoche and his aging teacher embark on an epic journey towards Tibet, in search of an answer.
Direction: BENJAMIN SADD
DUG OUT – Production & réalisation : Benjamin Sadd
For the past eight years the Ushuaïa TV Channel has supported the festival by giving an award for best director, with the winning film being broadcast
on the channel. The film is chosen by the editorial team of Ushuaïa TV.
See the trailer
Mankind has been using dugout canoes for over 8 000 years. But this doesn’t mean that building one from scratch is easy, as film-maker Benjamin Sadd and artist James Trundle, both from the south of England, discover on a journey to the Ecuadorian Amazon, where they live with an indigenous community, learn how to build a canoe and then take it on a journey down the river.
Capturing the beauty of the landscape, the people and the wildlife they encountered turned out to be so much more important than the distance or number of miles they travelled on their two month voyage through one of the most biodiverse areas of the world.
Direction: SÉBASTIEN DEVRIENT
EN ÉQUILIBRE SUR L’OCEAN – Réalisation : Sébastien Devrient – Production : Vertiges Prod
At the entrance for the screening of each film of the competition, members of the public receive a ticket that allows them to vote. Ballot boxes marked « Not at All », « A Little », « A lot », « Loved it » are situated at the Congress Centre exit. The tally of the votes is made in proportion to the number of spectators.
See the trailer
This film relates the story of Yvan Bourgnon, French Swiss sailor, a pillar of offshore racing and winner of the Jacques Vabre transatlantic race, and his crazy wager to complete the first solo round-the-world tour, on a cabinless catamaran the size of a beach sailboat. 220 days and 55 000 km at sea, without being able to shelter from the elements. Alone with his camera, he was faced not only with hardships such as shipwreck, storms, pirates and extreme temperatures but also the joy of innumerable moments of happiness and success. The film is an immersion in a long and difficult adventure that Yvan Bourgnon, in his artistic style, makes accessible, comfortable, and almost poetic.
| Schedule | 18 H 00 |
| Direction | BEN PAGE |
| Language | VOSTFR |
| Duration | 24 min. |
| Schedule | 19 H 00 |
| Direction | ANTOINE MOINEVILLE ET HUGO CLOUZEAU |
| Language | VOSTFR |
| Duration | 38 min. |
| Schedule | 20 H 30 |
| Direction | MOON CHANG-YONG, JEON JIN |
| Duration | 95 min. |
| Schedule | 18 H 00 |
| Direction | BEN PAGE |
| Language | VOSTFR |
| Duration | 24 min. |
| Schedule | 19 H 00 |
| Direction | ANTOINE MOINEVILLE ET HUGO CLOUZEAU |
| Language | VOSTFR |
| Duration | 38 min. |
| Schedule | 20 H 30 |
| Direction | MOON CHANG-YONG, JEON JIN |
| Duration | 95 min. |
| Schedule | 17 H 30 |
| Direction | BENJAMIN SADD |
| Language | VOSTFR |
| Duration | 52 min. |
| Schedule | 19 H 00 |
| Direction | BEN KNIGHT |
| Duration | 36 min. |
| Schedule | 20 H 30 |
| Direction | PIERRE DENOYEL ET NATHAN CURREN |
| Language | VF ENGLISH SUBTITLES |
| Duration | 64 min. |
| Schedule | 17 H 30 |
| Direction | JUSTINE MAUVIN & DAMIEN CASTERA |
| Language | VF |
| Duration | 42 min. |
| Schedule | 19 H 00 |
| Direction | ANDY COLLET |
| Language | VOSTFR |
| Duration | 44 min. |
| Schedule | 20 H 30 |
| Direction | JOCHEN SCHMOLL |
| Language | VOSTFR |
| Duration | 52 min. |
| Schedule | 17 H 30 |
| Direction | SÉBASTIEN DEVRIENT |
| Language | VF |
| Duration | 54 min. |
| Schedule | 19 H 00 |
| Direction | LUC MARESCOT |
| Language | VF |
| Duration | 52 min. |
Sylvain Tesson
Sylvain Tesson studied geography and geopolitics with Yves Lacoste before devoting his life to writing and long-distance travel.
After presenting the program Montagnes (France 3), he cycled around the world, crossed the Himalayas on foot, Central Asia on horseback, walked from Siberia to India in the footsteps of gulag escapees. , traveled the Caucasus and Anatolia to investigate oil, participated in humanitarian and archaeological missions in Afghanistan.
From his adventures in the Russian Far East, Mongolia, the Himalayas and Tibet, he brought back around fifteen stories, essays and collections of short stories, most of which are available in pocket editions. His latest work recounts the life of Alpine hunters in Afghanistan: Haute tension, Gallimard. His collection A Life to Sleep Outside published by Gallimard won the Goncourt for short stories in 2009 and the short story prize from the Académie Française.
He collaborates with Figaro Magazine, writes documentaries for France 5. He loves climbing, books and horse riding. Last year he stayed in a cabin in the middle of the Russian forest for six months and is preparing a “Cabin Journal” to be published in the Nouvelle Revue Française in spring 2011.
François Gabart
Skipper, competitor, engineer, François Gabart is everything at the same time. Versatile, curious, and a jack of all trades, this young sailor, revealed in the light of his victory in the Vendée Globe in 2012/2013, has propelled himself in the space of a few years to the rank of the greatest talents of the offshore racing. His specialty: solitaire. An art in its own right to which he devotes himself today with professionalism and method and an unalterable fascination for sailing competition which has accompanied him since an early age.
It was in 1994, at the age of 11, that he achieved his first successes at the helm of his Optimist. He will then move from one medium to another with happiness and success. Twenty years later, a new adventure begins with the Trimaran Macif and the desire remains intact.
At the end of 2017, he tackled the solo round the world record and shattered it in less than 43 days, thus confirming his status as the best sailor of his generation.
Next step in 2018? The Route du Rhum – Destination Guadeloupe, a race he already won in 2014 aboard the 60-foot Macif.
Edwige Coupez
Edwige Coupez
Edwige Coupez est journaliste à France Info, présentatrice de l’info depuis la rentrée dans la matinale aux côtés de Bru
Edwige Coupez is a journalist at France Info, news presenter since the start of the morning alongside Bruce Toussaint and in the political show 8h30 Toussaint/Apathy.
She is part of the team of journalists who launched the continuous news channel, called Franceinfo, and broadcast on TNT channel 27 since September 1, 2016. A unique global media of its kind, born from the partnership between Radio France, France Télévisions, France 24 and the INA.
Today she presents the 9:30 a.m. television news every day from Monday to Friday.
Passionate about nature and adventure sports, Edwige Coupez presented Hors Limite for 7 years, then France Info Extrême, a show dedicated to the exploits of extreme athletes and other adventurers, and still available as a podcast. She was a member of the jury of the La Rochelle Adventure Film Festival in 2017.
Committed to the transmission of her profession, she is also a professor at the EDJ, the journalism school of Sciences-Po Paris since 2012, one of the 14 schools recognized by the profession in France.
ce Toussaint et dans l’émission politique 8h30 Toussaint/Apathie.
Elle fait partie de l’équipe de journalistes qui a lancé la chaine d’information en continu, baptisée Franceinfo, et diffusée sur le canal 27 de la TNT depuis le 1er septembre 2016. Un média global unique en son genre, né du partenariat entre Radio France, France Télévisions, France 24 et l’INA.
Elle présente aujourd’hui le journal télévisé de 9h30 tous les jours du lundi au vendredi.
Passionnée de sport nature et aventure, Edwige Coupez a présenté pendant 7 ans Hors Limite, puis France Info Extrême, émission dédiée aux exploits des sportifs de l’extrême et autres aventuriers, et toujours disponible en podcast. Elle a été membre du jury du Festival du Film d’Aventure de la Rochelle en 2017.
Attachée à la transmission de son métier, elle est également professeur à l’EDJ, l’école de journalisme de Sciences-Po Paris depuis 2012, l’une des 14 écoles reconnues par la profession en France.
Marion Haerty
Marion Haerty
Freeride world champion, Marion is passionate about board sports and in particular snowboarding, which she has practiced since a young age at the Chamrousse club near Grenoble.
For several years she was able to express herself at the world championships, on the snowparks of the slopestyle world cup circuit.
From Alaska to Japan, she is now looking for the most beautiful lines to trace around the world for video projects with her sponsors or during competitions on the Freeride World Tour.
Its driving force is the exploration of new horizons; immerse yourself in new cultures, surpass yourself but also discover others and yourself.
Freeride allowed him to enter into symbiosis with the mountain to understand the elements that surround him.
Getting off the beaten track and always looking for sensations of freedom, snowboarding gives him an infinite field of creativity to live out his next adventures.
Stephane Dugast
Stephane Dugast
Since the year 2000, Stéphane Dugast has multiplied investigations in all latitudes with a strong “tropism” for oceans, deserts, wild spaces but also mythical routes, the polar world and immersions of all kinds. His investigations led him both to walk on the ice floe “In the footsteps of Paul-Émile Victor” and to sail on a flagship boat of French naval heritage: R97 La Jeanne – Ultime embarkation.
He also went riding a Harley-DavidsonTM “On Route 66”, a living heritage of the culture of the United States of America. Reporter for the magazine press (Le Figaro magazine, Géo, Marine & Océans, Cols Bleus), he is also the creator and host of the blog Embarquements, l’Aventure otherwise.
He also directs documentary films, including Clipperton, the mysterious island (France 3, France O), In the footsteps of Paul-Émile Victor (TV5 Monde, Voyage).
He is the author of numerous works published in bookstores, including the biography Paul-Émile Victor, I have always lived tomorrow, Éric Tabarly prize 2016. Stéphane Dugast has been the general secretary of the Société des Explorateurs Français since 2015.
Friday
17
April
Congres Center
DE BREST À BREST, DANS LES YEUX DE FRANÇOIS GABART
| Direction | BENJAMIN MONTEL |
| Duration | 26 min. |
A film featuring the exceptional adventure of François Gabart, around- the-world sailing record holder who completed the voyage in 42 days, 16 hours and 40 minutes aboard the Macif trimaran.
Saturday
18
April
Aigle des Neige Hotel
18TH DOLMA, LA PETITE KHAMPA
| Direction | Bertrand Delapierre et Mario Colonel |
Dolma, La petite Khampa (Dolma, the little Khampa) – 3pm- French version.
Mario Colonel photographed a child with a rebellious and mysterious look in his eyes during a voyage to Tibet. After returning home, he becomes aware of the enormous effect the portrait would have on people. Haunted by this image, he decided to return to Tibet years later in search of the child. His quest takes him far and wide from monasteries to nomad camps and leads the viewer along the paths of humanity of this little known region.
FROM TUESDAY 17TH TO THURSDAY APRIL19TH - Maison de Val
In addition to the film, we also offer you the opportunity of experiencing this adventure from a whole new angle!
A VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE
Thanks to a virtual reality headset, swim with a pack of sharks in the sublime backdrop of the island of Fakarava in French
Polynesia. Discover the 2 films (6 mins).
TUESDAY APRIL 17TH - Médiathèque
In addition to the film, we also offer you the opportunity of experiencing this adventure from a whole new angle!
A VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE
Thanks to a virtual reality headset, swim with a pack of sharks in the sublime backdrop of the island of Fakarava in French
Polynesia. Discover the 2 films (6 mins).
Wednesday APRIL 18TH - Maison de Val
In addition to the film « Becoming who I was », join in a new introduction to meditation. With Loréleï Rodrigo.
Information and free registration at the Tourist Office from Friday April 13th.
Wednesday APRIL 18TH - Domaine skiable
Come along and meet snowboard champion Marion Haerty and ride the slopes of Val d`Isere in her company. She may even give you some precious tips! She`ll be accompanied by our ambassador and local rider Lucy Paltz. Meet at the foot of the Solaise gondola.
Sign up free of charge at the Tourist Office.
Laurent Ballesta - 700 requins dans la nuit
Once again Laurent Ballesta will dazzle you with his extraordinary images. On his return from his many scientific expeditions on Fakarava, where Laurent and his team initially went to observe the mysterious grouper fish, he highlights an exceptional nocturnal gathering of 700 sharks who grouped together at night to hunt. A unique exhibition of four years` photographic work.
Benjamin - Dug out
Photographer, producer Benjamin Sadd immerses us in the universe of his film Dug Out via a series of clichés … Experience Ecuador in the heart of the Amazonian forest with the Huaorani tribe.
Renan Ozturk - The last honey hunter
In Nepal, the Kulung tribe and the last honey hunter through the lenses of photographer Renan Ozturk.
The surfers from the south west attending the festival this year have brought a few surfing memorabilia with them. An unmissable vintage exhibition!
THE BOOKSELLER’S FAVORITE
The book came to me when I was very young with Jack London’s “Building a Fire”. I dreamed of adventuring in Alaska or in the South Seas and finally I lived the Adventure a little while visiting from elsewhere, sometimes towards the great American spaces, often towards the East with in my luggage that other great pioneer that was Alexandra David Neel. And, finally, it is especially in the books that I have intensely built this adventure that is life. Jack London, writer, adventurer, journalist and socialist activist and Alexandra David Neel, adventurer, writer, journalist, singer and Buddhist: characters from novels…
Sylvain Tesson
UN ÉTÉ AVEC HOMERE
“Ulysses appears. Who is this paradoxical man? He loves adventure but wants to go home. He is curious about the universe but nostalgic of his home, he tastes nymphs but cries Penelope, throws himself into adventure but dreams of home…”
Sylvain Tesson
UNE TRÈS LÉGÈRE OSCILLATION
Sylvain Tesson’s diary, between expeditions and domestic journeys, one-night bivouacs and one-day meditations. Between the words is the writing of a destiny.
Sylvain Tesson
EN AVANT CALME ET FOU
Embark with Sylvain Tesson and Thomas Goisque for twenty-five years of riding around the world: a burst of oxygen and freedom!
Stéphane Dugast
L'ASTROLABE
Through rare photos and exclusive testimonies, it is 30 years of polar history that are crossed.
Stéphane Dugast
PAUL EMILE VICTOR , J'AI TOUJOURS VECU DEMAIN
Twenty years after his death, this first great biography, written by his daughter Daphne and journalist Stéphane Dugast, traces the exceptional destiny of this traveller in his century, of this extraordinary adventurer.
Alexis Jenni
LA CONQUÊTE DES ILES DE LA TERRE FERMÉ
“ Never has there been a greater adventure than this one and never will there be another, because the world is now closed, known, finished: there will never be a New World…”. There is, in this novel, picaresque, Homeric and above all, a sublime writing.
Alexis Jenni was born in Lyon in 1963. Professor of SVT in Lyon. Prix Goncourt 2011 for his first book: «l’art français de la guerre»
Gallimard. The conquest of
Îles de la Terre Ferme is his 9th published book.
Luc Le Vaillant
RÊVER LARGE
François Gabart edition.
Self-portrait of the French sailor and skipper F. Gabart, who won the Vendée Globe in 2013, the Route du Rhum solo race in 2014, the Transat Jacques Vabre 2015 with Pascal Bidégorry and then the Transat Anglaise 2016. According to him, the race continues on land by the search for new boats, materials or design, for an ever more efficient competition.
Yvan Bourgnon
Gladiateur des mers
Legendary navigator, intrepid, unbreakable, Yvan Bourgnon took part in the most prestigious races of the Transat
Jacques-Vabre at the Route du Rum. A specialist in sports catamarans and always in search of new challenges, he chose to sail, on October 5, 2013, aboard his favorite walnut shell, Ma Louloutte, to take on a totally crazy challenge: the first round-the-world tour in a non-domestic sailboat.
YVAN BOURGNON
CONQUÉRANT DES GLACES
Two years after completing his incredible round the world race, Yvan Bourgnon took on a new challenge. After a course of more than 7,500 kilometres and two months on the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, passing through the Arctic Islands of Canada’s Far North, he was the first skipper to complete the Northwest Passage on a solo sports catamaran, without a passenger compartment or assistance.
Laurent Ballesta
700 REQUINS LA NUIT
Four years of photographic work under the sign of the moon were necessary to compose this exceptional collection.
A book on the long term so that Laurent Ballesta tames his own fear, is accepted perhaps, and finally reaches the heart of this hidden pack in Fakarava, a preserved atoll of French Polynesia.
Mario colonel et Jocelyn Chavy
TREK EN HIMALAYA
Sixteen treks to travel through the most fabulous mountain landscapes. This book is an invitation to the Himalayas. The one of high peaks, high-altitude paths, improbable encounters and a spiri-tuality on top of summits.
Beautiful photo book with a practical aspect, breathtaking photos, coupling wonderfully, information and aesthetics.
