Sweetgrass Productions has done it again. The ski movie company known for creating the most art-house flicks in the ski world drove their famous school bus through Salt Lake City where I caught their latest offering, “Valhalla.”
If you’ve seen a Sweetgrass movie before, like “Signatures” and “Solitaire,” then you have an expectation of beautiful cinematography, gasp-inducing powder skiing, and a soulful, thoughtful vibe that most other ski movies lack. “Valhalla” doesn’t disappoint on that front, but it’s also a departure for them as well. In “Valhalla,” Sweetgrass had done something unheard of: they took pro skiers and turned them into actors. The main character, Conrad, is played by Cody Barnhill, who is almost unrecognizable under 70’s style beard, hair and vintage ski wear. The total lack of pro-skier ego allows to viewer to be taken away by the storyline, rather than being subjected to skier “segments” that proliferate the usual ski porn.
The narrative follows Conrad from the desert of Southern Utah north to Canada, as he searches for true freedom. After his VW Bug breaks down, he follows a faint skin track into the mountains and finds a tiny commune of backcountry skiers and hippies living in tents. The place is called “Vahalla,” and is run by a charismatic French dude with a penchant for eating canned fish and teaching kids how to ski with gleeful enthusiasm. The commune inhabitants shred pillow lines, ride waves of white powder, and snuggle around campfires while looking… thoughtful all the time.
Eventually, spring comes and Conrad goes further north where epic lines are dispatched in what is absolutely the most “ski porn” segment in the whole flick. By the end, skiers are ripping lines in an evergreen forest, which has to be the most difficult film shoot in ski-movie history.
The whole journey in told in six chapters: birth, youth, adolescence, adulthood, legacy, and rebirth. Through it all, the theme of discovering one’s self and finding absolute freedom rings out, and the ski segments remind us all that skiing is about simple, pure, fun.
Other notable segments include a Chinese downhill where everyone is totally naked except for avalanche beacons (safety first,) and a dreamy, fireworks-filled sequence that would be terrifying if you happen to watch it under the influence of acid.
While “Valhalla” nails everything it sets out to do – create a narrative experience through the lens of skiing that actually has meaning – the crew has done it. But I think it lacks actual skiing, and after the umpteenth closeup of a skier’s smiling face in slow motion I wanted to scream, “when are they going to go skiing goddammit!” But too many self-indulgent moments aside, I really enjoyed “Valhalla” and once again am happy that Sweetgrass Productions exists to give us more than the ski movie status-quo.
To order “Valhalla” or see remaining tour dates, check out Sweetgrass Productions online.