PRESS RELEASE: House of the Gods - new movie takes viewers on a unique journey to the lost world

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 UKC/UKH Gear 11 Nov 2022

An award winning adventure film with a difference is now available to rent or buy. Featuring climbers Leo Houlding and Anna Taylor and presented by Berghaus, 'House of the Gods' is a Coldhouse Collective production, and tells the story of an expedition to the iconic prow of Mount Roraima deep in the Amazon rainforest. At the heart of the film is the developing relationship between the climbers and their indigenous guides, which had a profound impact on the final phase of the expedition. House of the Gods is now available to buy or rent on Prime Video in the UK and over 80 other countries.

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23
 nathan79 12 Nov 2022
In reply to UKC/UKH Gear:

3 dislikes? I'm not even going to try to workout why.

Having listened to podcast episodes by Leo, Anna and co about this expedition it'll be nice to see the film.

13
 kermit_uk 13 Nov 2022
In reply to UKC/UKH Gear:

Not seen the film yet. Will watch when I can but interesting comments from Anna on her insta.

Makes me think how often i watch films without questioning the narrative. 

2
 ablackett 14 Nov 2022
In reply to kermit_uk:

> Not seen the film yet. Will watch when I can but interesting comments from Anna on her insta.

What has she said?

 DaveHK 14 Nov 2022
In reply to nathan79:

> 3 dislikes? I'm not even going to try to workout why.

I'll guess its for Amazon. 

1
 remus Global Crag Moderator 14 Nov 2022
In reply to ablackett:

> What has she said?


 Offwidth 14 Nov 2022
In reply to remus:

What on earth goes on in the minds of a production team that they could think such a thing is OK in a documentary film? 

Post edited at 09:38
2
 lewisrae 14 Nov 2022
In reply to kermit_uk:

Not surprising. Great Sheiks was basically a top gear special. Big lads on tour vibes

 kermit_uk 14 Nov 2022
In reply to Offwidth:

My thoughts exactly. As I say haven't seen it yet and it's obviously one word against the other but Anna's comments seem considered and balanced so I feel inclined to believe them.

1
 Damo 14 Nov 2022
In reply to Offwidth:

Films always distort reality, even when they don't mean to. It's part of the process of the creator, the editor, the observer.

When you bring in other factors such as time pressure, commercial/sponsor issues, competition for eyeballs, the need for drama, naturally different takes on a single event etc, it all gets much worse.

6
 Luke90 14 Nov 2022
In reply to Damo:

There's no possibility of presenting perfect indisputable truth in every aspect when you're cutting weeks of expedition down to a short film and trying to tell a compelling story. But if, as Anna claims, they inaccurately portrayed her as refusing to participate, that's a pretty serious misrepresentation that could have career-limiting consequences for her. And places her in a really awkward no-win position of either accepting the inaccurate portrayal or looking 'difficult' by questioning the film. That would go beyond a little while lie to jazz up the story.

 Damo 14 Nov 2022
In reply to Luke90:

Of course. But until I see the film myself I won't comment any more.

And if getting tied up in Amazon Prime is the only way to do it, that won't be anytime soon.

 Flinticus 15 Nov 2022
In reply to Luke90:

It also plays into the 'bros' narrative that some associate with such endeavours.

Not good to see what is in effect a distortion that feeds old fashioned stereotypes.

 Georgert 15 Nov 2022
In reply to Flinticus:

> It also plays into the 'bros' narrative that some associate with such endeavours.

> Not good to see what is in effect a distortion that feeds old fashioned stereotypes.

My thoughts exactly. Some pretty serious questions to answer for the director if one of the leading athletes (who's from an underrepresented group, no less) feels this way about their portrayal. 

Post edited at 16:37
3
 ablackett 19 Nov 2022
In reply to UKC/UKH Gear:

I'll avoid any spoilers here.

Has anyone else seen the film?  I watched it last week and felt disappointed in a number of ways.  It felt too short, at around 45 minutes there was no way they were going to be able to tell the history, the culture, the relationship between the climbers and the guides as well as showing the adventure and the climbing, but they tried to do all these things and didn't really manage to do any of them.

I've really enjoyed Leo's previous films, but not so much this one. 

The style of ascent was confusing also, a 'Team free ascent' so one of them free climbed each pitch, but they didn't seem to do them all in the right order and there were several pitches happening at the same time - as a climber it was tricky to figure out who was where and climbing what bit and if they were close to getting it done.

Also, a big peeve of mine with these films - the expedition is only half done when the climbing is done, and for it just to cut at the point the climbing is finished feels like half the story is missing to me.

 timparkin 20 Nov 2022
In reply to kermit_uk:

I saw the film last week and was immediately disturbed by the scene that she mentions. It seemed to play into a 'default weak girl' narrative that I was very surprised to see. Even had Anna had problems similar to that which was portrayed, as a film maker I would expect that to be a private moment unless it was agreed with both parties that it would become part of the narrative. The 'head in hands' moment seemed so small as to be irrelevant but if so, why include it. 

The only positive portrayal of her role seemed to be actually sending her part of the route (it looked to me like she only lead one pitch and really struggled whereas the blokes all cruised their parts). 

I particularly liked the footage of the men all hugging while Anna is still trying to get the top and then footage of her own smiling until someone finally notices her. 

Like I say, I had this feeling before I saw Anna's comments and so what I was putting down to poor, lazy film making seems now to be something a little less accidental. 

Overall, what looked like an amazing expedition with some great filmed footage ended up seeming to be rushed and tropey... 

Ah well... 

p.s. Reading the Berghaus report gave a much better balanced feel of the climb and explained some of the out of the disjointed nature of the film (i.e. Anna topped out on a different day it seems)

Post edited at 20:17
1
 Jordan-L 20 Nov 2022
In reply to UKC/UKH Gear:

It was released on Reel Rock Unlimited a few months ago. I was a bit confused when I saw this article as I thought it was a new film but I felt I had seen it already. I guess the article is just saying its new to buy or rent on Amazon. 

Anyway, its available on Reel Rock Unlimited if you want to avoid Amazon. Its like Netflix for climbing films, and works out cheaper than Netflix too. Lots of story based films on it too if, like me, you find watching people climbing a bit dull without a bit of a story with it. 


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