The Last First: Winter K2

Doors & Music at 6:30PM / Film at 7PM

In winter of 2021, Icelandic climber John Snorri Sigurjónsson teams up with local legends of Pakistan Muhammad Ali Sadpara and his son Sajid to try and conquer K2, also known as “The Savage Mountain,” and the 21st century’s last frontier. When word gets out, K2 is swarmed by climbers of wildly differing backgrounds and experience levels, disrupting the delicate ecosystem of the industry and revealing its many injustices. Western climbers arrive with media attention and the machinery of the adventure tourism economy, while Pakistani and Nepali high-altitude workers know all too well that neither risk nor reward will be fairly divided, and they may end up a footnote in the story of someone more privileged.

Amir Bar-Lev weaves first-hand documentation, social media content, and interviews into a riveting narrative that also showcases the jaw-dropping beauty of the landscape, but it is this  journey to the dark side of the mountain that elevates the film beyond the sum of its archive.

Thrilling, emotional, and complex, The Last First: Winter K2 is an astounding chronicle of a harrowing, heart-stopping race to the top that should never have been a race at all.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with Director Amir Bar-Lev moderated by Farihah Zaman, True/False Film Fest Artistic Director, and will be preceded by a musical performance from Maxubishi.

This annual screening is presented by True/False Film Fest and the University of Missouri’s Jonathan B. Murray Center for Documentary Journalism to spotlight essential new nonfiction.