Warren Miller started filming surfers with an 8 mm camera before he switched to skiers almost seven decades ago.
He turned a passion for skiing and a filming hobby into a career, single-handedly creating, in 1949, a new film category, and helping to make extreme skiing a career choice.
Most of today’s skiers and snowboarders weren’t born when Miller started. Now the patriarch is back on-screen in the 67th ski film, “Here, There &Everywhere,” playing Nov. 17 at the Historic Everett Theatre.
It’s a good blend of then and now. Miller has not been involved in a hands-on way with the films for 12 years, although his name stayed on the marquee.
In the opening, and scattered throughout, old film clips, old photographs and on-camera interviews and voiceovers allow a younger Warren Miller to relive some of his freest days, including living out of a teardrop trailer in a Sun Valley parking lot, an experience two of the film’s skiers emulate for the film.
“Here, There &Everywhere” is slightly mellower than most of his films, but there are plenty of jaw-dropping moments to keep snowriders grinning as well as fantasizing that they could drop off a cliff that’s only a few degrees from the vertical — and live to tell the tale.
As usual, “Here, There &Everywhere” includes destinations around the world. This year there are no trips to South America or Mongolia but one location comes out of left field.
Welcome to Fenway Park, Boston, site of the 2016 U.S. Grand Prix and FIS World Cup event, big-air competition for skiers and snowboarders held under the lights. Old photographs of Beantown and Fenway are sprinkled into the script.
Build a big-air ramp and they will come …
One of the most memorable shots in the film comes in the Switzerland section: Jess McMillan and Grete Eliassen are crossing from one promontory to another on a long, skinny, metal footbridge that moves with every step and gust of wind.
In Crested Butte, Colorado, bikes rule in snowless months but also have a place — on the snow — in winter. It was the site of this year’s inaugural Fat Bike World Championships. Hundreds of cyclists brought their fat tires (3.7 to 5 inches wide) and pedaled on, through and under the snow.
Apparently that takes some practice.
Skis, snowmobiles, yurts and a teardrop trailer were needed for the section in Montana’s Glacier Country.
The film also honors Norwegian Olympic champion and skiing icon Stein Eriksen, who died last December at age 87. He helped establish Deer Valley as a world-class resort.
The ski patrol is the star in the segment filmed in Kicking Horse, British Columbia. The working stiffs and their dynamite and avalanche gear get up early to go to the their ‘office’ to keep the slopes safe or bail out snowridersin trouble.
The most creative photographic approach comes in the Greenland section, where Seth Wescott and Rob Kingwill tackle terrain above a tiny village of 300 at the edge of where humans can survive. Icebergs dot the sea, and there are polar bears (no encounters) but the snowboarders ‘survive’ the experience.
The 40-song collection is well-chosen and well-placed: “Distant Past” (Everything Everything), “Way Down We Go” (Kaleo), “Mutant Brain (Sam Spiegel &Ape Drums featuring Assassin), “Black Coffee” (Rival Sons). Other artists include Crash Kings, Cloud Cult, Bassnectar, Tower of Power, Coldplay and JeRule.
The credit segment, also known as the trail crawl, has the best title of the film: “Longer than You’ve Been Alive” by the Old 97’s.
Speaking of longevity, on Sept. 1 Miller released his new autobiography, “Freedom Found,” a mix of ski history with personality. It’s packed with 110 vintage photos. Perhaps he finally followed his own advice: “If you don’t do it this year, you will be one year older when you do.”
At age 92, now was a good time.
Columnist Sharon Wootton can be reached at 360-468-3964 or www.song- andword.com.
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