The Museum of Sports and Tourism in Warsaw organized the Wanda Rutkiewicz Film Festival for the 31st time. Seven documentaries competed for victory, three of them received awards, as decided by a professional jury. But this was not the most important thing about this festival. The very rich three-day program, on October 25-27, attracted hundreds of participants interested in the events and attractions: adults, young people and children. The organizers took care of both the presentation of films and meetings with famous athletes, and for children aged 6-12 they offered an unusual workshop entitled “How to organize an expedition to the end of the world.”
 
I looked at the presentation: “Easy Mountains, or How Not to Climb Mt. Blanc and Matterhorn,” a meeting with Kuba Radziejowski. The conference room was bursting at the seams. Whole families attended, strollers with small children stood in the aisles between the chairs, it was really impressive. There was so much interest in the details of difficult climbing today, when athletes have the most modern equipment, but all the time the most important thing is strength of character.
 
But first of all, I chose film and focused on it. Because for nineteen years I have been running the international FilmAT festival – a festival of travel films, TV documentaries and corporate films, whose Gala has also been held at the Museum for four years. Here we are also building a presentation of CIFFT’s 35-year history and the selection of the world’s best travel film. As director of the festival, organizer of the international jury and participant and juror at many festivals around the world, I have seen hundreds of films. Of course, one always remembers the best ones, the ones that moved strongly. And among those films now I will certainly include Red Bull’s 2022 “Wild Waters,” directed by David Arnaud, in which the famous Nouria Newman tells the story of her life.
 
The hour-and-a-half-long documentary is watched in one breath, because from the first moment we are there, on the other side of the screen, with Nouria Newman. We learn about a little girl’s fascination with kayaking, we learn with her what professional mountain kayaking is, we learn about the physical and mental hardship of entering this difficult sport. We participate in professional world championships, compete with the best and receive medals, two medals at the ICF World Canoe Slalom Championships: gold in 2014 (K1 team) and silver in 2013 (K1). We are also proud to have won a bronze medal in the K1 team competition at the 2014 European Championships in Vienna. And we are achieving a position as one of the world’s best female kayakers.
 
But this is not enough for us. Despite experiencing how dangerous the sport is, surviving the deaths of fellow athletes, we decide to take up the extreme sport. And we go with Nouria to northern India to trek 375 kilometers in the Himalayas, close to the borders with China and Pakistan, amidst beautiful, though extremely harsh landscapes, in deep valleys, to swim the wild Tsarap, Zanskar and Indus rivers and cover 375 kilometers in 7 days. We are relieved when the expedition ends successfully, because we chafed to death along with it. Nouria got stuck on a rock and through a stroke of luck, survived. And hoping that after a strong warning from fate, Nouria would give up the extreme sport, the camera takes us to Ecuador, to the 100-foot-tall, or 30.48-meter-high Pucuno waterfall. We gaze intently at the beautiful waterfall waiting for rain so that there will be more water below… The camera strapped to Nouria, absolutely captures everything. And off we go, facing this element, unpredictable, unlimited, ruthless, we have to overcome ourselves with her… Nouria Newman is the first woman to swim through a waterfall over 30 meters high.
 
Everyone should see this documentary. The film teaches humility and great respect for nature, for its incredible beauty and overwhelming power, and teaches how important a decision is in life. EVERY DECISION.
 
And what is this Festival for you? – I ask Aleksandra Czechowicz-Woźniak – deputy director of the Museum of Sports and Tourism, who decided on the continuation and shape of this Festival:
“At this unique Festival we stop our thoughts, giving them to strong reflections: what is the price of decisions, what limits should courage have, how much humility should we have towards nature, should we follow our dreams, putting everything on one card…?”