He is currently finishing his master's degree at the film academy run by the legendary Hollywood director David Lynch. Now he is on to a new film, which is still in production, is dedicated to the memory of one of the greatest alpinists of all time, Pavle Kozjek.

Eight and a Half Circles
The new film is going to be a real psycho-drama, as it depicts an alpinist's reflections on Dante's Inferno. During his 25 years as an alpinist, Kresal lost 25 friends to the mountains. "The longer one turns a blind eye to certain problems, the stronger it will sooner or later return. If one has the ability to exit this unpredictable spiral, one can move forward, otherwise..." The new film, called Eight and a Half Circles, shows these facts through Kresal's last and very tragic expedition to the Himalayas in 2008, more precisely to the Muztagh Tower mountain in Pakistan, which turned his life and awareness of himself upside down and after which nothing was the same as before for him.

Subconscious impulses regarding some key decisions that must often be made by alpinists on the spur of the moment are mainly very clear, but are nevertheless difficult to grasp. And one does not really even want to know what prompted them to take such decisions at that given moment. Through regular and proper meditation, I can now entirely and instantly understand many decisions I made in the past. I could have avoided many troubles in my career as an alpinist if I had started meditating sooner. I spoke a lot about this with Tomaž Humar after the Muztagh Tower accident. He arrived at similar conclusions by using a slightly different approach.

A David Lynch Foundation grantee
The university he attends covers part of the costs of his stay in the USA, so he does not receive a full grant. Only 14 grantees were selected out of 150 candidates from all over the world. His successful candidacy was a big surprise for him. The first criterion for selection was the quality of an up to ten-minute film submitted by the applicant. In the second round, the main criterion was the preparation of a flawless project to be developed and realised in the course of the study programme. The technically and substantively most sophisticated films and the most creative projects with a strong vision were then selected. David Lynch is the main mentor and evaluator of the film programme. The course of study is also coordinated by many successful filmmakers and managers, who mainly come from Los Angeles or work in circles closely associated with Hollywood.

Fairfield, Iowa, the site of the Maharishi University of Management (MUM), which the David Lynch MA in Film programme is also a part of, is a small Midwest town that has nothing in common with large cities like Chicago or New York."Three quarters of the 10,000 local residents are engaged in transcendental meditation (TM), which is also practised at MUM. Fairfield has an almost zero crime rate. There is silence everywhere, a feature not commonly found in urban environments. The University is situated on the outskirts of the town. The surrounding area is teeming with deer, foxes, racoons, squirrels and rabbits and gives the impression of being a natural reserve. All that peacefulness, nature and the highly creative individuals I associate with present a superb environment for creativity. I would dare to say that no European university provides at least approximately similar study conditions. Studies at MUM are based on raising one’s creative intelligence. There is a single subject on schedule each month, which is wonderfully complemented by visiting lecturers and practical exercises and workshops. Each course is followed by a few days break, which is used for additional mediation. David Lynch has been active in TM for more than 40 years. The entire second half of the study course is exclusively intended for the production of films developed by students in the first half. I had brought with me my semi-finished project so that I could give it the final touches."

The study programme is so intense that Kresal could not afford to take a single day off. In recent months, as director of photography, he shot four study films by his colleagues, including his first feature film. "It was more than everything I had done in the previous five years together... MUM is the most international university in the US: this year, its students come from 84 counties from around the world and it is surprising how many of them know Slovenia or have already heard of wonderful Ljubljana."

Collecting donations for the film
He is collecting donations for the 40-minute film Eight and a Half Circles on the Indiegogo platform. "Our 40-day deadline on the Indiegogo film platform is just about to expire. Despite receiving huge moral support from the alpinism-oriented public, mountain film lovers, alpinists and mountain climbers, who are the target audience of this film, only 12% of the needed funds for its production has thus far been raised. Many eagerly await this film since our previous film, Sfing (The Sphinx), was a great success, winning more than 20 awards at festivals all over the world. However, I realise that Slovenia is not yet ready to provide such support and assistance to projects. All funds raised in such manner must be channelled directly into production, there is no room for fees. Although each donor in the end receives at least a signed copy of the film on DVD, and they can also choose from among a host of other "rewards" depending on their respective donations, the response has been unusually poor. People are not even familiar with PayPal, they do not trust online credit card transactions, etc., although, like Kickstarter, this fundraising platform operates in accordance with the highest standards. On the other hand, there is almost no event, project or action in the US that is not at least partially funded through mass fundraising. We will now try to find funds in some other manner," says the author.

Does he have any unfulfilled mountaineering goals?
At all events, even when he talks about large-scale projects, his thoughts keep returning to the Slovenian Julian Alps. The majestic wall of Loška Stena includes the little known Votli Vrh peak. Its northern wall is the wildest precipice in Slovenia and beyond. Access to it is awkward and dangerous as the lower half of the wall is extremely crumbly and steep and there are hardly any handholds in the rock. It is a truly difficult combination. "My ultimate wish of all time will probably be to climb this route as directly as possible. It is quite clear what drove Ante Mahkota, the first one to climb up the face of the Sphinx, to keep returning there and why no expedition to the world's highest peaks meant as much to him as climbing up the Sphinx".

Vesna Žarkovič, SINFO