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MEDIA - Documentary Film

Feb. 2006

DOCUMENTARY SKI FILM SHOT IN BELLA COOLA.. FIRST OF ITS KIND!! By Caitlin Thompson, Coast Mountain News, Bella Coola.

High Ground Production's documentary film on the modern history of big mountain skiing completed its ground-breaking shots in the Coast Range near Bella Coola last month. Director Mark Obenhaus, and producers Jordan Kronick and Gabrielle Tenenbaum, partnered with Cablecam International, West Coast Helicopters and Bella Coola Heli Sports to shoot several of the best freestyle skiers in the world as they confronted some of the most pristine slopes in North America.

The film is taking a different approach than your usual ski movie, bagging in-depth interviews with extreme skiers - from those who started it all, to the few at the top of the sport today - and tracing the sport from its modest beginnings to the skiers that keep pushing the limits.

Extreme freestyle skiers such as Shane McConkey, Seth Morrison, Chris Davenport, Eric Pehota, and Doug Coombs spent almost a month filming on locations like Mad Dog Glacier, Noomst Trees, and Mt. Saugstad.

Producer Jordan Kronick, a Canadian filmmaker based in New York, who has made television documentaries with the late TV reporter Peter Jennings, says that the film is intended to follow the "chronology of big mountain skiing."

The still-untitled film profiles around eight or nine main skiers, with a supporting cast of many others, and aims to tell the story behind the emergence of big mountain skiing, appealing to skiers and non-skiers alike.

The filmmaking team was sold on Bella Coola after speaking with the co-owner of Bella Coola Heli Sports, Beat Steiner, who himself has a wealth of experience in filming ski movies.

At the end of January an inaugural trip to Bella Coola convinced the team that they were in the right place, and filming started in early February.

Beat recommended West Coast Helicopters to fly in the equipment and the skiers, which was a natural choice for skiers Seth Morrison and Shane McConkey, who have flown with West Coast Helicopters pilot Richard Lapointe on several other projects and consistently rate him as one of the best pilots in the business.

BCHS Head Guide Paul Bernsten was on hand to scout locations for the skiers and provide information on the routes.

At one point, there were 25 people on location at the shoot on Mad Dog Glacier.

With the current popularity of documentaries, the team is hoping to capitalize on the public's fascination with extreme skiing and insatiable appetite for true life stories.

The film also utilizes some new technology that hasn't been exploited in any ski film to date. One of the main goals of the team was to "film skiing in a totally new way."

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