Canyoning

It is one of the films I shot for the “No Limits” series for the client Sector.

The protagonist of the film was Danilo Cogrossi: a former Olympic athlete from the golden age in which Di Biasi also competed. The client wanted worldwide exploits to be able to build his commercials and the entire advertising campaign on it. The idea was to introduce a completely new specialty into canyoning: diving from great heights, which would become a world specialty within two years. In the first years the championship was held in Switzerland, in Val Maggia, to be more precise in Brontallo. The organizers were the Weill spouses and I took care of the filming which was broadcast on Swiss television and beyond. Frederic Weill was perhaps the only diver in the world to head into the 28m springboard. The entry speed is close to 90km/h and it’s best not to make a mistake if you want to bring the neck home in one piece. Today the championship is taken care of by Red Bull who “robbed” the race and divers from the Weills from the top of its boundless economic powers. I think, along with “Buildering” and “B.A.S.E. Jump in the U.S.A.” and Icefalls was one of the most original of my production for No Limits.

 

In 2021 the Lecco television, Teleunica, asked me for permission to publish many of my sports films together with an interview explaining how I had organized the production and “the secrets” of this type of film. The following is the introduction to each of the films in question that the original footage followed. I always remember that the films, 25 years old, were shot on 16 mm film with all the limitations of quality and commitment associated with a production where the camera weighing 6/7 km and quite cumbersome created quite a few problems having to in this case waterproof. In some cases we built an underwater case for a WWII machine gun camera….