'Steep' - at Vancouver Int'l Film Fest.

[gertlush]

Sounds kind of interesting...

 

Viff

 

Steep

[sTEEP] Nonfiction Features of 2007

 

USA, 2007, 92 min, 35mm

International Premiere

 

Directed By: Mark Obenhaus

EXEC PRODS: J. Stuart Horsfall, Mark Obenhaus, Tom Yellin

PRODS: Jordan Kronick, Gabrielle Tenenbaum

CAM: Erich Roland

ED: Peter R. Livingston, Jr.

MUS: Anton Sanko

 

Extreme skiing and boarding films are plentiful these days, and they make for pretty amazing viewing. Steep, though, is in a class of its own. Mark Obenhaus' thrilling new documentary expands the focus and ups the production values to create a far richer experience than just pumped-up young daredevils dropping from the sky.

 

The film merges rarely seen images of the sport's beginnings with magnificent original footage of the sport today including BASE-jumping with skis off cliffs in the remote backcountry of BC and Alaska, skiers overtaken by an avalanche in Iceland, and descents in the mountains of France so dangerous that they will never be repeated. Shot in stunning high-definition, Steep is about a group of exquisitely gifted and daring athletes who've taken the sport of skiing far beyond the confines of the ski resort and into a vertical world were only a few have ventured before.

 

“The cinematography and editing is magnificent. Obenhaus comments that 'It’s always about the story--that’s really where the pleasures of documentaries are--finding it and mining it as you produce.' This is what sets Steep apart from other movies on skiing and what inspired the sense of calm and appreciation I felt from the first minute of the movie.”--Chronicles of Gnarnia... Steep features Bill Briggs, Stefano De Benedetti, Eric Pehota, Glen Plake, Shane McConkey, Seth Morrison, Chris Davenport, Ingrid Backstrom, Andrew McLean, Emily Coombs and the late Doug Coombs.