Climbing over rocks into film

The careers of three University of Delaware graduates are climbing with the creation of Cartel Productions, an independent film company that is intent on bringing the expanding rock climbing culture into the mainstream market.

Fred Bohm, AG ’01, Scott Moser, AS ’02, and Ed Rhine, AS ’02, who met at UD and spent many hours on the climbing wall in the Carpenter Sports Building, formed Cartel Productions in 2003 and soon thereafter released their first documentary film, Hostile Takeover.

Bohm is the director of filming and also serves as head of public relations for the company, which was conceived while the three were still UD students. Moser works on Internet development [www.cartelclimbing.com] and doubles as screenwriter, and Rhine serves as editor and director of postproduction.

Hostile Takeover received an enthusiastic reception during showings at the Flatirons Theatre in Boulder, Colo., at the Smith Rock Climbers Carnival in Terrebone, Ore., and at the second annual Red Rock Rendezvous climbing festival near Las Vegas, Bohm says. The film has been picked up by two international distributors, making it available coast-to-coast and worldwide.

A new film is in the works, as is a DVD magazine and a clothing line.

“Film production is the primary focus of Cartel, and our films strive to tell a story in a way that major climbing production companies miss, that being a stylish post-MTV portrait of the climbing lifestyle that the average climber can relate to and a nonclimber can appreciate,” Moser says. “Not wanting to limit our creative potential, we have branched out with a clothing line and an interactive web site that keeps climbers updated with new upcoming climbing spots to check out.”

The three developed a screenplay for the new film and began production in June, with a scheduled release in spring 2006. “Building on the success of our first film, we have improved every aspect of our production process,” Bohm says. “The upcoming film has added talented actors, superior camera equipment, professional editing software and an original, nuanced screenplay.”

Bohm says climbing lends itself to film because “it is a very aesthetic sport. It allows us, as cinematographers, to show the sport, as well as beauty of areas that most do not see. Climbing is the meat and potatoes of our lives. As all filmmakers do, we draw inspiration from our own experiences, and so drawing on our lives as climbers occurs naturally.”

Bohm says he believes the time is right for Cartel, with its focus on climbing. “Over the past few years, climbing has seen an explosion in popularity,” he says. “More and more, people are taking to individual sports as opposed to professional team sports. In our age of immediate personal gratification and independence, we don’t want to rely on other people for our recreation. Climbing and other individual sports allow us to accomplish our personal goals where we set and exceed our own limits.”

The three friends were all climbing enthusiasts before enrolling at UD, and their interest grew once on campus. They met and spent many hours at the climbing wall and eventually worked there, crediting Maryann Rapposelli of recreation services with offering a great deal of encouragement and support.

“She was our boss at the climbing wall, but above all she was our friend,” Bohm says. “She really cared about what we were doing with climbing and supported us in any way she could.”

The trio met other climbers on campus and began to spend weekends and breaks, and even a few weekdays, on the road to prime climbing spots from upstate New York to North Carolina. “We were out climbing almost every weekend and decided to film what we were doing,” Bohm says, which eventually led to the creation of Cartel Productions. “At first we didn’t mean for it to become our careers, but as time went on, it just became more natural.”

None of the three had majors that provided any background in film, with Bohm studying natural resource management; Moser, geography and French; and Rhine, geology. “Needless to say, most of our education on filming came the old-fashioned way, through trial and error,” Bohm says. “We watched other climbing films and decided we could do a lot better than that.  None of them really got you involved with the climbers and climbing lifestyle. We wanted to tell a story. We felt we had something worthy to say.”

Bohm says that, rather than sink money into the company straight off, the three decided to let it progress naturally. They began expanding as publicity and income were generated. The approach has left them with solid footing and a clear trail as they prepare to scale new and ever larger challenges.

   —Neil Thomas, AS ’76