Falling Forward Films
Chasing Home
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November 8, 2005-- The freeheel world is fortunate this year to have
three, specific to our sport videos fueling the stoke. "Chasing
Home," a new film that marks the production-side debut of
veteran tele film stars Ben Dolenc and Max Mancini, who share
the producer and director's credits. Dolenc, these days a student
at Seattle’s School of Visual Concepts, in between shooting
segments for Warren Miller in whose films Ben has become a staple
in recent years, appears to be a key creative force behind "Chasing
Home." Mancini, a former film student himself, is no slouch
behind the camera or the editor's console. Indeed, a big part
of the "feel" of Chasing Home is a result of the pair's
artistic, liberal use of Super-8 film cameras, long popular with
serious students of film for its grainy look and rich, saturated
colors.
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The film opens with a sequence announcing
the athletes who appear in Chasing Home, and the segment immediately
makes clear that the directors will not be taking themselves
too seriously over the course of the next 30 minutes.
As each athlete's name appears they are
shown taking sublime diggers, or falling with a thud. While TGP's
Sessions, and the Powderwhore's PW05 film focus on the more mainstream
aspects of telemark skiing, fans of freeheel park skiing, who
may have been feeling neglected this season, will be happy to
hear that Chasing Home is all that they could hope for in a modern
tele film.
Without putting the stopwatch on it, this
one seems to be at least two thirds park footage, maybe more.
Surprisingly artistic at times for those
of us unfamiliar the the filmmakers background, Chasing Home
manages to completly avoid being pretentious in any way whatsoever.
The film is mostly just a good old time as it follows Ben and
Max on various adventures, literally around the world, accompanied
by Lorenzo Worster, Cody Smith, Ty Dayberry, Eron Turnispeed,
and others. |
Let's try this again:
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The Telemarktips Pick:
Our Clip From "Chasing Home" |
Max and Ben are very busy guys. In addition
to their responsilibities as high profile pro tele skiers, both
are full-time students these days. And while nearly all snowsport
athletes are content to fill one role, a few high achievers double
down and try to get an education while living the dream. But
it's virtually unheard of for sponsored skiers to do both while
simultaneously producing, directing, filming and starring in
their own athlete-driven film. With this in mind, we were more
than happy to step in to pick out and produce a three or four
minute "preview" web video segment from Chasing Home
to share with our readers. With total pleasure, here is our Telemarktips
clip:
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21mb
Windows Media |
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2mb Windows Media |
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39mb
Mpeg |
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There is at least a fair amount of big
mountain footage mixed in, and it's fun to watch these guys with
their hyper-aggressive approach, which pretty much consists of
hurling themselves down the mountain in a style that works most
of the time, but not always... There are few if any controlled,
pretty, little (or big) tele turns, though some of the lines
taken, and the athleticism with which they are skied is truly
awesome. Particularly the big mountain scenes with Max shot in
Livigno, those were really sweet.
But first and foremost, this is a park
film, and these guys have so much fun with this stuff that it's
hard not to enjoy watching them go at it. Whether they are jibbing
off of the blade of a snowcat parked on top of a terrain park
jump, sliding rails at amazingly high speeds, or launching with
serious amplitude, and in fine style, it's clear that these freeheel
athletes continue to change the perception of what can be done
on tele gear. More than that though, in Chasing Home they succeed
in letting everyone know that they are having a lot of fun, and
and planting the idea that many of you might just want to be
a part of it.
In addition to the 30 minute main feature,
there are extras on the DVD which include a Utah park session,
entertaining lifestyle footage from Europe, and a slide show
with some serious stokage.
Well edited, and with excellent music,
Chasing Home has a very pro feel, and it never drags. This is
a film that will appeal to a segment of the tele skiing community
that would have gone essentially unserved this year, instead
we expect park fans to be all over this very worthy of the genre
freeheel film.
www.fallingforwardfilms.com |