Popularize Almaty mountains via sports film festival: Captive Minds and Inge Solheim

Almaty mountains – Zailisky Alatau – have not been receiving the deserved love. Local activists and mountaineers are rooting for popularization of responsible tourism in the mountains. Hence are the Kok-Jailau defenders petitioning against the construction of the Kok-Jailau Skiing Resort on the territory of the national park.

In turn, to popularize responsible tourism and showcase the grand beauty of our mountains, the CEO of the UK based marketing agency Captive Minds Marcus Chidgey suggested organizing an international sports film festival in the mountains near Almaty. The idea of a film festival in the mountains about mountaineering and other related activities has been successfully implemented at the Kendal Mountain Festival in the UK.

“It is just an idea, but our team would like to turn the idea into reality. This would allow Kazakhstan to make itself a name internationally. Almaty’s mountains would become more popular among amateur sportsmen and active tourists. We have hundreds of videos and we work with a lot of famous mountaineers and sportsmen. To begin with, possibly this year, we want to bring these films to the film festival. Then, we will select famous travellers and sportsmen to bring them to the Almaty mountains and make a film about their travels, ascends and expeditions. All of it will go along with shots of your beautiful nature. When the film is ready, we will show it abroad, post in online to tell the world about Kazakhstan. It will surely have an effect. People would want to come here,” Chidgey told Tengrinews.

Famous adventurer Inge Solheim works with Chidgey. Solheim accompanied Prince Harry in his trips to South Pole and North Pole. He also travelled to Shymbulak Skiing Resort in Almaty with Prince Harry last March.

“My goal is to share my experience of being in Kazakhstan. I also want to tell a lot of people about Almaty’s mountains, recreation and places to visit. Even my friends do not know about Almaty. But the place has a great potential. It is only half an hour ride from the airport to the mountains. It is unique,” Solheim said.

Solheim came to Almaty in the end of March to meet his friends and work on a number of projects. “I just love your nature, people, food. I am always really looking forward to these trips to Kazakhstan. People here know how to welcome guests in a special way, with such warmth and sincerity. And tomorrow I will go by helicopter to where you can ski. By the way, for that I love my country – Norway, there it is also possible to ski in the summer. So, here I am at home,” Solheim told #1MAG.

Famous Kazakhstani mountain climber Maksut Zhumayev has also commented on the film festival in the mountains.

“Foreigners that come to Kazakhstan want to see something they do not have in their countries. They want authenticity. We have it. But now we have to create the infrastructure. We have to make mounatins in Almaty more approachable and safe, but at the same time we have to preserve the nature,” Zhumashev said.

Kendal Mountain Festival Trailer

Kendal Mountain Festival 2014 Trailer (World Tour) from Kendal Mountain Festival on Vimeo.

By Gyuzel Kamalova (reporting by Vladimir Prokopenko)