Sure, you can watch new ski edits on the internet or throw Walls of Freedom in the DVD player, but there’s nothing like the energy of a live ski film premiere in a sweet setting surrounded by your ski-town brothers and sisters. Plus, there’s usually some free swag, along with skis and season passes, being raffled off. And the athlete cameos and shenanigans just can’t be recreated in a living room.
Olympic Valley
The pre-season stoke kicks off Oct. 10 at the Olympic Village Events Center with Teton Gravity Research’s Pressure Drop — an ode to the moment of focus and clarity before you point it downhill and gravity takes over.
What started in Jackson Hole in 1996 with a fax machine and a desk made of four milk crates and a piece of plywood, TGR has become one of the biggest action sports film outfits in the world. This year’s journey will take viewers to spines in Alaska and islands in Norway, to perfect pillow lines in British Columbia and familiar yet feisty terrain in Palisades Tahoe.
Watch for segments of Jeremy Jones and his nephew Kai Jones, longtime TGR shredder Sage Cattabriga-Alosa, and X-Games slopestyler turned big mountain slayer Maggie Voison. Complete with the feel-good, product-placement drinking scenes around the fire, Pressure Drop will check the boxes to get you drooling for winter.
Early show at 5 p.m., rowdier show at 7:45 p.m.
Then, on Oct. 29 and 30, the venue will play host to the Tahoe premiere of this year’s Warren Miller flick, Sno-Ciety.
What spawned from Warren and his buddy Ward Baker living out of a teardrop trailer in the Sun Valley parking lot back in 1947 has flourished into over 75 years of ski and snow-sport related inspiration, deadpan comedy, and culture. My dad used to go to Warren Miller premieres back in the ’60s, and today’s little grommets probably will be doing the same 50 years from now. Sno-Ciety was shot in the streets of Finland and on the steeps of Austria, and about a dozen other awesome locales including Mammoth Mountain. Prediction: Daron Rahlves and Chris Rubens will ski fast and there will be some outstanding one-liners in what will be an ode to mountain-town timelessness.
Shows both nights at 7 p.m. Prices and tickets for both films at palisadestahoe.com.
Tahoe City
Moving down Highway 89 about 5 miles, the Tahoe City Art Hause is jam-packed with ski film premieres this fall.
The theater gets things going Oct. 14 with the premier of Ski for the Love’s fourth film, Yard Sale. With Josh Anderson, Alex “Shugz” Dorszynski, Jedediah Kravitz, and Brandon Craddock in front of the lens and cinematographer Hazen Woolson behind it, this all-Tahoe crew will show you how to ski a big line with grace or how to fall down it with style — because, as they say, “If you’re not yard-saling, you’re probably not trying.”
Shot in Utah, Wyoming, Alaska, Canada, and California, and not without some naked skiing and overall tomfoolery, these local boys will show you what it means to get after it as they get the theater howling. Shows at 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.; get your tickets early.
Next up, the Art Haus hosts the Tahoe premiere of Matchstick Productions’ latest drop, After the Snowfall. With shows Oct. 25 at 5:30 and 8 p.m., you’ll get a soul-skiing vibe and a storytelling throughline as your jaw gapes and your posterior clenches. With footage from around the world and from pretty close by, note segments by Truckee local and overall badass Michelle Parker and Nico Porteous, the 2022 Olympic Men’s halfpipe gold medal winner from New Zealand.
In addition to the rock gods and goddesses of skiing and riding, After the Snowfall also celebrates the everyday ski bums and Regular Joe mountain-town folks who’ve built lives around feeding the simple but passionate hunger of making turns down mountains of white. Encore screenings are Oct. 26 and 27.
Then, the Art Haus just keeps the premiere party going. Oct. 29 at 8 p.m., come out for Ornada, Armada’s first foray into ski films that combines big mountain steeps with extensive urban skiing and park sessions, and was shot over a two-year period. Hosted by evo Tahoe City, Tanner Hall headlines an all-star cast. Rounding out their slate is the Tahoe premiere of the Girl Winter Film Tour on Nov. 13. The show starts at 8 p.m. and will feature short and mid-length women-centered films “with range,” aiming to give new voices and stories to the genre. Nov. 9 sees Craig Beck on hand for a 50th anniversary screening of his seminal film, Daydreams. See tahoearthauscinema.com for tickets.
Reno
Lastly, the Biggest Little (Ski) City in the World won’t be left out of this ski film premiere bonanza. Lake Tahoe AleWorX near the Ace’s ballpark in Reno’s Brewery District is getting in on the action too — and not without some oomph. On Oct. 14, the restaurant/bar/event space hosts the TREW To You Tour for a night of films headlined by Adapt, the story of High Fives Athlete Shelby Estocado’s journey from her 2020 spinal cord injury to grit-and-stoke filled adaptive skier. Each film shown that night will be vying for the coveted $15,000 grand prize in the TREW To You Film Contest.
The next night at AleWorx, Oct. 15, Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe will present the Reno premiere of Pressure Drop. You can expect a raffle and swag both nights, and stoke and good times all ski-film season long.
Note: There are lots of rippers who live around these parts. They and their friends have cameras. Therefore, keep your eyeballs peeled for announcements of shorter, indie-film premieres popping up as well.
