Museo Nazionale della Montagna

Walter Bonatti travels to Patagonia to retrace the extraordinary story of the Salesian explorer Alberto Maria De Agostini and his titanic exploration work of the lands and mountains of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. Recovering photos and actual footage of the De Agostini Expeditions, the film, entirely shot in Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia in 1999, is a real journey into the lands of myth, and proposes, in a curious perspective that combines present and past, a fantastic sequence of some of the most spectacular places and savages of the American regions of the far South.

In 1985 the 'Sport-Roccia 85' competitions were held in Bassa Valle Stretta in western Peidmont near Bardonecchia. Some of the most famous free climbers of Italy and Europe took part in these events. A number of scenes records this event - the first of its kind in western Europe - with the competitors, the difficulties, the action following one after another, the work of the jury and the large crowd that watched it. This film is an official document of the event.

This film is a step in the work being done to rediscover and exploit the roots of our alpinistic history. It covers the first 50 years of the century and traces the adventures of the first Italian expeditions outside Europe between 1899 and 1954. The story is dominated by the Duke of Abruzzo and his ventures which are an example of scientific and alpinistic organization apart from the results obtained. The film makes use of precious film documents and collections found in collaboration with the National Museum of Mountains in Turin.

Black out is a drama about rock climbing. It was directed by Aldo Audisio in 1988 and produced by Museo Nazionale della Montagna. It features Giovannino Massari and Raffaele Natta-Soleri.

In 1954, an Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio set out to climb K2: the participants were recruited among some of the best Italian mountaineers and after undertaking a period of innovative training for that time, they left directly for the massif of Karakorum. Under the almost military command of Desio, Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli reached the peak. Walter Bonatti, twenty-three at the time, the youngest in the expedition, spent a night without shelter at an altitude of 8100 meters, after having carried oxygen bottles to Campagnoni and Lacedelli. The K2 conquest followed a trail of controversy, although returning home to Italy was triumphant: the Italian mountaineers succeeded in climbing K2.