SNOWBOARD FILM FESTIVAL WINNERS

SNOWBOARD FILM FESTIVAL WINNERS

Winners announced of SNOW FILM FEST NYC 2010 AWARDS
PRESENTED BY SKULLCANDY

Filmmakers, Athletes, Industry and NYC ski and snowboarders pack 2 days of screenings at Tribeca Cinemas

See Lauren Traub Teton's Live Report about attending the Snowboard Film Festival here.
Videos with filmmakers and stars of the Snow Film Festival here.

New York, NY, November 22, 2010 – With two days of sold out screenings, over 2,500 people in attendance and numerous premieres and parties, the first annual Snow Film Fest NYC presented by Skullcandy (SFFNYC) wrapped up in the late hours of Sunday morning at Tribeca Cinemas and Lounge. The 2010 SFFNYC, held November 19th and 20th, featured an unprecedented arrangement of 24 ski and snowboarding films from around the world, intimate Q&A sessions with the filmmakers and athletes and lively parties with libations courtesy of Omni Wines Mille and the Skullcandy DJ crew.

The votes are in from our official 2010 screening panel and we are proud to announce the winners:

Best 2010 Ski Film:
THE WAY I SEE IT. Matchstick Productions brings the audience a work of epic proportions, catching the best athletes doing what the do best- skiing faster, spinning while flipping and grabbing and stalking the deepest stashes of snow, while still reminding the audience what makes this sport so special: adventure, passion, camaraderie and fun.
Best 2010 Snowboard Film:
NOWHERE. The Absinthe crew put on film the answer to a common question: What is the difference between exploring and being lost? Where you are lost or exactly where you want to be, it all depends on how you look at it. And this year we are looking at some pretty heavy shredding.

Best Documentary 2010:
SWIFT. SILENT. DEEP. Troy Beauchamp tells the compelling story of the most infamous secret ski fraternity, the Jackson Hole Air Force and the evolution of 50 years of extreme skiing.
Sean Pettit, Cody Townsend and Herik Windstedt take home the Best 2010 Ski Segment with their tricks in Matchstick’s THE WAY I SEE IT and Lucas Debari and Blair Habenicht steal the top prize for Best 2010 Snowboarding Segment for their combo part in Absinthe’s NOWHERE

NOWHERE rounds out their huge weekend wins with Best Cinematography 2010 award to Absinthe.

Swiss Artist Cali P takes home the Best Musical Score for Inspired media Concepts, Like a Lion soundtrack.

No surprise here that Viewer’s choice for Best 2010 Ski flick went to East Coast based Meathead Films’ WORK IT OUT. The SATURDAY NIGHT RIDE was unquestionably voted Viewer’s Choice 2010 Snowboard flick, entertaining the crowd with their creative fusing of shredding and pro wrestling in an all new sport.

Thanks to our distinguished 2010 SFFNYC screening panel for spending hours volunteering their time to watch these films: Senior Editor ESPN Action Sports Micah Abrams, UX Entertainment Group’s founder and producer Jason Burgh, CEO of Armada Skis Erik Snyder, David Reddick of Powder Magazine, art + music buff Pedro Mena, Shredder and athlete manager Yulin Oliver, Photog Craig Wetherby, Nikki Scoggins of Vans, and Mascha Van Tongeren of Shredunion.com.

Throughout the weekend, seven photographs curated by SFFNYC's official media partners, Powder and Snowboarder Magazines and two snowboard setups courtesy of Salomon, were up for grabs via a silent auction which raised $5,000 for Stoked Mentoring. SFFNYC also raffled off tons of prizes from our partners at Eastern Mountain Sports, Skullcandy, Killington, Surefoot, Baldface, The Northface and Nike 6.0 to raise money for the charity.

For a taste of true NYC, festival attendees were treated to old fashioned Egg creams courtesy of the Brooklyn Farmacy and Ice Cream Soda Fountain Shop. Popchips and Vitacoco also kept attendees hydrated and snacked in between screenings.

SFFNYC would like to thank our filmmakers for their continued dedication to bringing snow enthusiasts awesome eye candy and amping us up for the winter ahead: Swift Silent Deep Productions, Forum, Riley Poor, Travis Limoge/Pirate Productions, Gregory Stump, Chris James and Meathead Films, Jeremy Mills, Stan Evans, Rene Eckert, Eric Iberg, Shayne Nelson and Matt Koskenin/Inspired Media Concepts, Gerald Salmina, Steve Jones/Teton Gravity Research, Waide Hoyt and Joseph Fraioli/Standard Films, Erik Lavoie, Meredith Danluck and Jake Burghart, VBS TV, Quiksilver, and Vice Magazine, Level 1, Alterna Films, Absinthe, Poorboyz, Joe Carlino/Transworld, Flow and Andrew Mutty, Kurt Johnson/ WildCard, Think Thank, Poorboyz, and Matchstick.

SFFNYC could not have been made possible without the support of our partners: Joshua Berg, Rob Layer, Dennis Bruce and the entire Skullcandy crew, Tom Horrocks and Jillian from Killington, Alan Ando from Eastern Mountain Sports Soho, Jeff Penceiro from Baldface, Keith Torres of OmniWines, Ashley Otte of Powder Magazine, Chris Engleman of Snowboarder Magazine, Chris Cooper and Adam of Spraying Gravy, Jordan Harris and Justin McManus of SNAP, Sarah Ratcliffe of Surefoot, Thomas Sullivan of Bar13, Peter Freeman of Brooklyn Farmacy, Laurence Chandler of Undergrind + Proof7, VitaCoco, PopChips, Visine, Salomon, Bonfire, The Northface, Nike 6.0, Oakley, and our communities: NY Snowboarding Group, Ski Bums, Hoboken Ski Club, and New York Metropolitan Ski Council.

The inaugural SNOW FILM FEST NYC brought together avid ski and snowboarders, legendary photographers, film buffs and New York City audiences fascinated by the winter sports. It was a celebration of both the East Coast ski and snowboarding communities and the larger snow industry, but also the artistic integrity of the action sports film genre. Be sure to continue to check in at www.snowfilmfesnyc.com for images of the festival and updates on the 2011 installation.



www.SnowFilmFestNYC.com

Snowboarding Films at Fest NYC Live Report - November 19 and 20, 2010

Snowboarding Films at Snow Film Fest NYC Live Report

by Lauren Traub Teton

The Snow Film Fest NYC 2010 kicked off at the Tribeca Cinemas last night and takes place November 19 and 20, 2010. This is the most snowboard fun we’ve had in NYC since last season’s Burton B movie premiere and party at the same spot. Filmmakers and athletes have flown in from as far away as Cali and Europe to support their ski and snowboard films and the public is there to show the love.

See videos with filmmakers and stars of the Snow Film Festival here.
See Snowboard Film Festival winners announcement here.

Twenty-four films have been chosen by a panel of industry experts for showing at Snow Film Fest NYC, and there will be prizes awarded in several categories including Best Feature, Best Short, Best Maneuver, Best Cinematography, Best Musical Score, and Best Animation. It’s not just a “sitting and watching films” festival because the Tribeca Cinemas has a full on bar and party room on premises and as viewers exit the theatre they are ushered right into the door of the party.

The pre-parties started on Thursday night at Snap sports bar and Epstein’s, so people were stoked and having a good time before the film part of the festival even began. Ticket specials were offered online to help keep guests from having to stand in line and advance sale tickets and movie descriptions are at snowfilmfestnyc.com.

Some of the highlights of Friday night’s snowboard films were Trans World Snowboarding’s “In Color” made by Joe Carlino, Flow’s “Witness the Sickness”and TGR’s “THE BIG ONE.” Meet Joe Carlino who is a surprisingly humble and very nice guy and his mom Maria and dad Sal, in this video. Maria is his unofficial press agent and greatest fan and supplied details of Joe’s previous awards, that Joe was too humble to offer up. Everybody should have Twifties parents like these. Maria kept the stoke going during the film and offered that “the California audience was more effusive during and after the showing.” We particularly enjoyed Chris Bradshaw's rail jam part set to Screaming Jay Hawkins “Put a Spell on You.” Seeing an athlete ride rails in two directions, that is: down, and then perpendicular was a new one on this snowboard journalist. Bradshaw aficionados Kade Madsen and the Sparta crew opined that this was not even the best they’ve seen from Bradshaw.

“Witness the Sickness” from the mind of Mutty and executed by the Flow Team is a fun offering and we’re still wondering how Tim Humphreys had the camera attached to his arm while filming himself in the air with psychedelic wind and graphics all around. And we’re loving Brandon Reis’ part set to Devo’s “Uncontrollabe Urge.” Scotty Lago is a lovable magnet for trouble as witnessed by his Olympic medal conversation on Jimmy Kimmel and a very broken motel room door with an angry owner outside. Turns out Flow is using all that footage that usually ends up on the cutting room floor and have turned it into a weekly series called “The Life” that will be released on Wednesdays. See our video interview with Kade Madsen at the Festival.

THE BIG ONE is a 16 mm compilation of 10 years of Teton Gravity Research’s epic ski and snowboard moments at their home laboratory in Jackson Hole, WY. The film premieres at the festival and we caught up with filmmaker Steve Jones who shared stories, including loading a film’s worth of reels backwards back in the day and ending up with nothing but “red.”

Saturday night expected high points on the snowboard side were the world premiere of "Todcast The Movie" starring Todd Richards. We expected zany fun ala Todd in this one as we followed Todd Richards and his crew on their misadventures through New Zealand, Alaska, and beyond as they look for snow, waves, skateparks, massage parlors, and mischief. Frankly, who wants to be on a vacation trip with a cranky Todd Richards, even if it's for snowboarding, surfing, and skating. We never did see any search for massage parlors, though the helicopter hot tub scene was a nice surprise. The filmmakers told us they had to cut out the part where Todd had settled into a lodge and made friends with a cat, while the rest of the crew was chomping at the bit waiting for filming weather.

Also Saturday night is “At Equilibrium” whose director Rene Eckert (video interview here) is traveling the world premiering his film in 40(!) locations. AT EQUILIBRIUM is the fourth of a series of eastern European snowboard documentaries. After “Poland – A snowboard documentary”, “Slovaki A true movie about snowboarding” and last years highlight “From Romania with Love” this documentary deals with the passionate people developing snowboarding in Bulgaria. The snowboarders in "At Equilibrium" are amazingly similar to the ones I meet out on the hills here but Rene tells us that a snowboard costs the equivalent of several weeks pay in Bulgaria, keeping it as a sport for the privileged or sponsored.

“Stance” is the latest effort of Jmills Ent and is an exclusively female snowboard film to that aims to start a larger initiative to push snowboarding’s creative and cinematic boundaries. We interviewed filmmaker Jeremy Mills and two of the stars, Hana Beamon and Erin Comstock at the festival and Jeremy tells us how he achieved one of the highest viewerships of all time on this movie. Stan Evans is Jeremy's partner and his radio background helped insure that each rider's part worked fantastically with her music. We came in on the end of the movie and were thrilled to see two of the most exciting, and fun parts of the season. Lisa Filzmoser (killing it in her Helly Hansen) and RaewynReid (with a TWO song part!) are new heroes on our list of exciting riders this season.

Jeremy Pettit gave us a quick interview before his humourous film Forum's "F*ck IT" played. He has made so many snowboard films he can't even remember how many. Glad this snowboard film festival is finally giving us a chance to meet the eyes behind the lenses.

One film that has me curious because unlike much snow porno, it has a plot and a very offbeat one at that, is “The Saturday Night Ride.” Listen to this: When an ex pro snowboarder is released from prison for a crime he didn’t commit, the snowboarding world he thought he could return to has become something far beyond his wildest dreams. Pro wrestling and snowboarding have become fused into an all-new sport. Every Saturday night championship bouts are broadcast live on prime time TV. The riders have all become obsessed with battling each other in the ring and on the jump, in a quest to gain the world championship belt.” We saw the film and the plot was actually a tongue-in-cheek humorous pretense for the usual multi-part snowboard film. But the most amazing thing was that they actually built a boxing ring on snow and had riders jump over it with a lively crowd cheering it all on. We love creativity and humor in snowboard films.

"Hooked" by Pirate Movie Productions out of Europe also had a plot involving imprisoned snowboard pirates trying to break out of a castle. (Why do all the films with plots feature snowboarders in prison, we wonder?) Travis Limoge, originally of Essex Junction, VT and now marketing guy of PMP explained in the Q and A session how the snowboarders were summoned to the castle in Austria, not knowing what to expect, and became actors in costume as well as doing their snowboard parts for the film.

Absinthe's "Nowhere" finished the snowboard side of the festival at 1 a.m. in fitting style. To tell you the truth, after seeing 6 snowboard films on Saturday night, I don't remember much about it! There was a late party 'til 4a.m. back at Snap but lots of people stayed around the party lounge right at the Tribeca Cinemas til after 2 a.m. on Saturday night. This year’s first ever Snow Film Fest NYC can already be declared a smashing success and next year’s will be bigger and better once the word gets out that this is the best pre-season party anywhere!

Lauren Traub Teton is a video journalist, photographer and writer covering snowboard events, athletes, and parties as well as a snowboard safety advocate. She is the founder of SnowboardSecrets.TV and SnowboardSecrets.com. Also SnowboardRegistry.com, SnowboardEventsCalendar.com, and SnowboardProfiles.com.Also Flexmeters.com Snowboard and Skateboard wrist guards designed by a doctor. And Twifties.TV, for the FUN people over 50.

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Flow - Witness the Sickness

Witness the Sickness !!!

By Lauren Traub Teton

Everybody’s talking about the music! This season’s Flow snowboard flick doesn’t stick to the usual gangster tracks and instead offers an eclectic variety of music from jazz to Devo. It dares to be different!

A jazzy rock score and animated images over the opening credits alert us that this is not just like all the other snowboard video offerings. We strongly approve of the fact that each rider’s name appears on the screen and it’s also a cool innovation that some of the dialog is sub-titled which worked out great when we saw this film for the first time at The North Star club in Boston last week with dj dance tracks playing over the film’s soundtrack.

Jeremy Thompson has the first big role in this flick. We like his part despite (or because of?) the number of falls of his that are shown. And who knew he could speak Japanese almost well enough to meet a girl?

Brandon Reis is big in Japan and his part is irresistible because it’s done to music by Devo, playing Uncontrollable Urge. We love the double front flip. Tim Humphreys goes huge and really gets around, to Japan, Mount Snow Vermont, Hunter Mountain NY, Sun Valley ID, June Mountain, and Sierra at Tahoe, CA, apparently filming himself as he flies through a psychedelic tunnel of wind and color.

We see part of Scotty Lago’s Olympic half pipe run and see him on Jimmy Kimmel’s TV show swinging the Olympic bronze over his head as he and Jimmy discuss other places Scotty‘s medal has shown up in the media. Also, what is that broken hotel room door with the angry motel owner outside? Poor Scotty is a magnet for trouble and we love him. The whole Flow team each gets a shot or 2 in this 27 minutes. We wish there was more of Sarka Pancochova riding, and especially expounding verbally as she does in her opinionated style. See our interview with Sarka at the Winter Dew Tour 2010 at Mount Snow. And to see what went into making this film, see the short video called The Life here.

Want to see video interviews we made with the Flow Team?

Sarka Pancochova Interview - Winter Dew Tour 2010 at Mount Snow, Vermont





Shane Fortier Interview with Ryan Paris and Graham Hoffman

Scotty Lago US Open Winner interview on the way to the podium







Flow Team Interview: Tim Humphreys, Brandon Reis, Jeremy Thompson and Kade Madsen


Gabe McGovern Interview US Open 2010 Thrsday



Brandon Reis + Nick Julius Interview - Winter Dew 2010 at Mount Snow, Vermont

Snowboard Films - Sugarloaf - Big Mountain. Big Love.

Sugarloaf, The Movie - Big Mountain Big Love
by Lauren Traub Teton

Sugarloaf pride runs deep!

Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine has put out their own film this season and props and kudos to any mountain that takes on and successfully kills it like this on a project of this magnitude. We have two conclusions after watching this 21 minute video: Sugarloafers fiercely love their mountain, and if you haven’t had the Sugarloaf experience yet, you are missing something.

We learn some of the history of the mountain with lots of clips of rhythmic old school skiing and interviews. The canoe races, T-Bar, the infamous Red Stallion that had the only live rock acts in Maine at the time, and the sad (but funny) tale of anyone who tried to sleep upstairs while the band was playing. We learn that the trails are named after logging terms.

Twelve minutes in we join the modern world with the creation of Carrabasset Valley Academy in 1982 which has produced Olympians medalists in the three disciplines of freestyle, alpine skiing, and snowboarding. Seth Wescott, the two-time Olympic Gold snowboard winner in Snowboardcross shares his insights. Deep blue skies, and happy people who are proud to be Sugarloafers, is the message we carry away and that makes us want to make the long trek up to Sugarloaf for the first time ever, this season.

See our video interview with Seth Wescott after he brushes his teeth with Crest Pro Health!