Award-winning Sherpas Cinema’s first feature detailed loss of high school friends in an avalanche
BY LYNN MARTEL, FOR THE CALGARY HERALDDECEMBER 18, 2011
All. I. Can.
They are just three little words, but they comprise the title and the powerful message behind the newest, awardwinning, snow riding film by Sherpas Cinema.
Packed with stunning cinematography and adrenalinpumping sequences from Alaska to Chile to Greenland, Morocco and Japan, the 70-minute film also embodies something few ski movies ever attempt; a storyline that evolves, matures and culminates in a thought-provoking message.
“We try to embed a strong theme in all our films,” explained director/cinematographer, Dave Mossop, who, like his Sherpa colleagues, Eric Crossland and Malcolm Sangster, is a native Calgarian. “We also always try to be as creative and original as possible.”
The Sherpas’ first feature film, The Fine Line, captured the passion and pleasure of backcountry skiing combined with educational segments on the dangers of avalanche terrain. Earning Mossop the coveted best director award at the 2009 X-Dance Festival, the film covered intimate subject matter; in 1997, the Sherpas lost four close high school classmates in an avalanche outside the Fortress ski hill boundary.
“We were so young when it happened we hadn’t yet fully fused as adult personalities. This event shifted our direction,” Mossop said. “We all learned how fragile life is, and that it’s important to live every day to the fullest. All we knew then was that we wanted to live everyday in the mountains.”
Doing just that, the Sherpas have pursued outdoor filmmaking while others from their tight group moved to mountain towns. One is a professional mountain guide, another an avalanche forecaster.
Tackling the topic of the natural environment was a much bigger and therefore highly attractive challenge, Mossop admitted. Winning best feature length film at the 2011 Banff Mountain Film Festival was the ultimate reward, the pinnacle of any mountain filmmaker’s career.
“By combining thought-provoking issues with mind-blow-ing action and excellent cinematography, this film captures the essence of big mountain skiing as it exists today,” commented jury member Chris Davenport.
That essence involves attempting to connect the individual skier to the much larger issue of climate change by exposing skiers’ roles on a breathing, flowing, snowing, warming, drying planet.
“In regards to the environment, I’ve always noticed the disconnect between the small scale and the large scale,” Mossop said. “It’s hard to imagine an individual making an impact. I wanted to create a three-act film that addresses both these worlds and then connects them.”
“All”, he continued, represents the large-scale environment; “I” embodies the individual skier’s experience; and “Can” connects the two and encourages positive action.
While the mountain footage is original and spectacular, the scene stealer has turned out to be master freeskier JP Auclair rail sliding and skimming across wafer-thin patches of sidewalk snow in Trail, B.C. Available on Vimeo, the segment has gone ballistic.
While the two-year filmmaking process did indeed burn up fossil fuels, the Sherpas purchased carbon credits to offset their impact, feeling that a wellmade film could inspire positive change.
“Skiers and snowboarders are one of the most weather-dependent subcultures in the world,” Mossop said. “If mountain culture can’t stand up for climate change, then who will?”
