Winter is coming.
Locals can debate which comes first in the chicken-and-egg competition between the annual signaling of the season shepherded in by a new Warren Miller film and the chance to make first tracks on the opening day of the ski season. But have no doubt, this year’s debut of the 75th film from Warren Miller Entertainment will feature an audience already balancing exhaustion and exhilaration from two days burning off turkey, pie and stuffing on the slopes of Telluride.
Most of what you need to know about “75” can be summed up in two words: Warren Miller. The filmmaker has put out an annual ski movie every year for over a half century, beginning in 1949, and he is credited with teaching generations of snow sports enthusiasts that you don’t need to wait for a bad break-up to jump off a cliff.
The rest of what you need to know can be summed up in the fact that after a breathtaking opening segment in the Austrian Alps, the film’s second segment is on Shaun White — the most celebrated X-Game and Olympic snowboarder — and the film is barely getting warmed up by then. When you build in eight more segments after setting the tone with White, his old coach J.J. Thomas from Golden, Colorado, and next generation sensation Toby Miller one-upping each other as they shred through Park City’s backcountry, it’s a steep slope to keep building. But that’s what “75” does.
For “75,” director Josh Haskins wanted to pair the incomparable cinematography that has long distinguished Warren Miller movies with the other voices shaping the future of snow sports. A Colorado segment set in Winter Park features the Technically Doing It (TDI) crew, a bipoc snowboarding group started by Louis Medearis, “Cuban Lu,” who said TDI features “mainly all the Black professional snowboarders in the world.”
Cuban Lu came to the sport in 2020, discovering filming and snowboarding both in the midst of COVID.
“We reached out directly to him about putting this kind of action sequence and segment together,” Jessica McGee, Marketing Director for Warren Miller Entertainment, told the Daily Planet. “We have a handful of these collaboration segments.”
Another collaboration hones in on two of the TDI crew, X Games gold-medalist Zeb Powell, a 23-year-old from North Carolina committed to getting more people of color involved in snow sports, and 15-year-old LJ Henriquez, a Brooklyn-born phenom of Dominican descent who learned to snowboard at the massive indoor ski resort Big Snow in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Selema Masekela, filmmaker, long-time X Games host and sports commentator for ESPN, NBC and HBO, produced the segment and joined Henriquez and Powell for some backcountry powder shredding in Japan.
“I get pissed off that it’s not accessible to everyone,” the 52-year-old New Yorker and son of South African jazz musician Hugh Masekela said of his commitment to introducing youth of color to alternative sports like surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding.
Masekela credited Powell and Henriquez with accelerating the diversity of the sport. “You can’t ignore these kids. They’re going to do these kinds of things for more kids that look like us.”
Colorado snow is featured in another segment set in Aspen, following Olympic and X Games half-pipe ski champions Alex Ferreira and Cassie Sharp as the latter returns to competitive skiing after taking a couple years off when she became a mother.
Crested Butte’s Aaron Blunck is another featured Coloradan, tracking extraordinary footage from his heliskiing trip in Alaska’s Chugach Mountains with Caile Zeliff and snowboarder Danny Davis.
One of the film’s highlights is a return to Lake Tahoe, where a 25-year-old Miller made his first feature ski film in 1949. Palisades Tahoe Ski Resort also celebrated its 75th year in 2024, and the film has a nostalgic homecoming in California’s Olympic Valley. The segment alternates between subjects who have been skiing (and patrolling) Palisades Tahoe for 50 years and the teenagers raised on its slopes — including father-son tandems that illustrate the throughline binding adventure athletes to each other.
Families finding their lines on the mountain reflect the omni-generational nature of a Warren Miller movie event. Audiences span the gamut of ages, from four to fourscore. There’s a camaraderie between those drawn together for traditions as dear as butter-side-down debates on Thanksgiving.
The crew touring with the film embraces that energy, serving as the hosts of screenings, stoking enthusiasm with free schwag and amping up audiences for the festive film.
“I was blind going into Warren Miller before, but I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Hassan Joseph, an “ambassador” nearing the end of his first season with Warren Miller Entertainment, told the Planet. “Everyone’s emotions, coming up to me and telling me how much going to the shows (means to them). I didn’t know what to expect, but that energy gets me into it.”
Joseph calls himself “technically bi-shreddal,” equally interested in snowboarding and skiing. He’s been catching up on the previous 74 films while working on the tour, starting with the 46th, made in the year of his birth, 1995.
Buena Vista resident Liv Kroll, the tour’s MC, marveled at the audience members faithfully returning decade after decade to kick off winters with Warren Miller and those carrying his legacy.
“Some of them are wearing the T-shirts that they got (their first) year,” Kroll said. “I saw a guy who had the rattiest old Warren Miller 50 (t-shirt). It was like a Superman moment,” she said, miming the movie alum ripping open his button-down shirt to reveal his “super-faded” 50th anniversary shirt.
The guarantee of giveaways is a secondary draw to the audiences, but it’s the spirit of the experience that makes it all worthwhile for people like Joseph.
“If we see people who are diehard, long-time Warren Miller fans, we’ll hook them up with some extra swag, just try to make a little extra impact,” Joseph said, sharing a photo of six-year-old Denver McMinn from Fort Collins having his first adventure in a new ski jacket he snagged at a screening. “That’s really fulfilling for us.”
“75” is showing on Friday, Nov. 29 at the Sheridan Opera House, with two screenings at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.
This post was originally published on here
