Warren Miller’s ’75’ screens in Aspen on Saturday
If you’re expecting a retrospective of Warren Miller’s last 75 years with Warren Miller’s “75,” expect again. While it’d be entertaining to watch flashbacks of people flailing on chairlift ramps, Glen Plake sporting his mohawk on skinnier skis or 1970’s ballet skiing and Miller’s dry humor, this season’s film sends it with a lineup chockfull of inspiring diversity.
Two screenings of the film are slated for 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Saturday at Aspen’s Harris Concert Hall, 960 North 3rd St.
Miller’s films have always motivated skiers and riders to get out and get at it. As he said in his 1975 flick: “There comes a time in a skier’s life where they must decide whether to get up and hit the slopes or go lay back down in bed all day like a bum.” True to Miller’s original and lasting mission, Warren Miller’s “75” delivers plenty of stoke for the season.
It launches with a montage of the various athletes and then comments: “75 years gives you time to reflect: What will you hand down to the next generation? How about that time moves differently in the mountains, and the fountain of youth isn’t a fountain at all; it’s a chairlift.”
Then, it transports you to Austria for big mountain skiing with free rider champion Max Hitzig and his mom, whose advice is: Go for what you love to do.
Shawn White gets some face shots at Park City, followed by skiers and riders flowing down Alaskan spines and Caite Zeliff’s story of finding her joy through a blown-out knee and unexpected lines.
Aspen’s Alex Ferreira, who recently completed the first perfect season in the history of the halfpipe World Cup, talks about balancing discipline with fun when it comes to becoming a champion. He says if you like what you’re doing and you’re playing freely, you’ll naturally progress.
Then, you follow Cassie Sharpe on her first day back in the halfpipe after her daughter was born. She’s returning to competition partially due to her competitive nature but also to show other moms that life doesn’t end after having a kid.
The film reminds people that they don’t have to be from the mountains to flourish; they can simply heed the call, even if it begins with an indoor snow playing field. A native Dominican Republican now living in New Jersey acts as a role model for newer generations like Olympian Zeb Powell. You’ll watch them ride Japan’s deep powder, with innovative shots, including flying through openings in tree branches.
Tricks become even more inventive as the film goes on the never-ending quest to find the limits of skiing in Finland with a ski crew that slides both in, on, and outside of the box. You just have to see for yourself what these passionate “kids” are up to.
Then it’s off to British Columbia’s natural ebbs and flows with Skeena Cat Skiing.
After a short stint in the terrain park, the film becomes more expansive. Returning to Palisades Tahoe, where Miller originally filmed in 1949, Jeremy Jones talks about his 30 years on this particular mountain and how cool it is to see his kids and the next generation carve into the evolution of the sport. There, you’ll also meet father-son ski patrol duo Gael and Zack Williams. Gael went to Tahoe during the 1981-82 season to get skiing out of his system. He’s now the longest-running member of the resort’s ski patrol.
Footage of nature makes your soul soar during the segment before a fictional “Alpine Rhapsody” story, which, honestly, I thought could’ve been more compelling if it included more than a passing mantle-photograph nod to Miller. Call me old-school, but I would’ve loved to see a storyline with Miller as the master and the new generation of filmmakers as the apprentices.
“Alpine Rhapsody” aside, this film will amp you up for the season, just as it serves its mission to set the tone for the next 75 years of snow-sports filmmaking.
For tickets:warrenmiller.com/events/harris-concert-hall
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