This short film could be a tribute to the work & passion of the Australian filmmaker Benjamin Dowie.
We’ve met with Ben last year when he headed to Europe for the very first time, although we’ve been in touch since quite a few years now through vimeo, following our respective work and doing our first collaboration last year on his short STILLNESS ARISES. He felt so much in love with the Alps that he decided to come back this summer for my greatest pleasure. I welcomed him at my place while having in mind to hike a few impressive mountain peaks I’d never hiked before. There is no better way than sharing an outdoor adventure especially with someone you deeply respect and admire. While exploring these unknown & very desolate places, it was impossible for us to leave our cameras behind. I ended up spontaneously shooting some footage of Ben at work inspired by all these mountain sceneries we were exploring together for the first time. We hiked 4 peaks in a few days, alternatively one day off with one day up. Amongst those peaks, there was this massive Mont Buet standing at 3096 meters in front of the Mont-Blanc range. For this peak, we had to climb up to 2225 meters during 7 exhausting hours. We set up our camp on top of that peak during a fresh night and were able to catch up the sunrise in a early 6am morning waking up with one of the most outstanding mountain view I had ever seen.

WALK THE RIDGE aims to share the deep feelings we can experiment hiking up in the mountain, highlighting those precise moments when you’re finally going to make it. Those very precise seconds when you finally walk the dizzy ridge before reaching the final summit.

I am thankful to vimeo for what it can actually offer to its overall community by making possible connections between passionated filmmakers. Passion & creativity can bring us to share some of our greatest experiences in life.

Thank you so much to Oleg Shupdeiko from Heinali for authorizing me to use « The Sun Will Rise Yet We Won’t Be Here » which was one of our favorite listening during the adventure.

Directed, filmed & edited by
Mathieu Le Lay
http://www.mathieulelay.com
http://www.facebook.com/mathieulelayfilmmaker

Music by
Heinali - Oleg Shupdeiko
http://heinali.bandcamp.com

Words by
Benjamin Dowie
http://www.beanpole.com.au
http://www.facebook.com/BeanpoleProductions

© Mathieu Le Lay - 2015