The film:

Vittorio Sella made this documentary film on the Karakoram range (Western Himalaya) during an expedition organized in 1909 by Luigi Amedeo di Savoia, the Duke of Abruzzi, together with the guide Joseph Petigax, Henri and Emile Brocherel. The film shows the journey through some major stages: the arrival on the Rawalpindi station, the shot of the Dal Lake, the recruitment of the porters, the transfers on foot and in the rafts, up to Boorgi-La.

An expedition failed as the Prince Luigi Amedeo’s first goal: the ascension to the summit of K2, but  he reached a record elevation of 7,498 meters on Bride Peak. The attempt cost around half million Francs and hired around 400 people.

The print was used to illustrate the conferences held by the Duke of Abruzzi in Roma and Torino to describe the details of the attempt. The official release in the cinematographic circuit was on the 2nd of February 1910 at the Cinema Borsa in Torino.

The film restoration:

The preservation was carried out by the Museo Nazionale del Cinema di Torino, the Nederlands Filmmuseum in Amsterdam [EYE Film Institute Netherlands] and the Associazione Culturale Festival Internazionale Film della Montagna, from a tinted and toned nitrate print, which was bought in 1960 from the Sella family and is now conserved at the Museum in Torino. A dupe negative and positive prints colored with the Desmet method were printed on safety film from the nitrate print.

The restoration was carried out in 1995 at the L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in Bologna.

Link Vimeo Cineteca MNC:

https://vimeo.com/519896551

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