In “Aiming High – A Race Against the Limits,” directors Flavio Gerber and Alun Meyerhans chronicle the ambitious effort to establish a new downhill classic at the base of the Matterhorn. The documentary world premieres at the Zurich Film Festival.
Touted as the world’s first transnational and highest-altitude ski race, the Matterhorn Cervino Speed Opening was set to debut in 2022, with racers speeding down the Gran Becca course from the Matterhorn glacier in Zermatt across the border to the finish line in Cervinia, Italy
The film follows organizers and athletes and the challenges they face over the course of two years as they try to establish the new event.
It was interesting to do a movie about something new, about a vision, about some something big,” says Gerber. “Of course we wanted to have the spectacle of the ski races – and it was a speed race. And we wanted to have all this with the big view of the mountain. But it turned out differently. It turned differently each day we were there.”
It was quite challenging to keep the spirit up of all the protagonists and of the organizations, even the FIS [International Ski Federation]. It was bitter for all of them. We were there, we kept on going, and it was also tough for us to be like, okay, what’s the story and where can we find our way to tell the story? But in the end we somehow managed.”
It was “a massive undertaking, marked by emotions of euphoria, uncertainty and helplessness,” adds Meyerhans.
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