The Meeting 8 in Aspen kicked off its showcase of this year’s ski movies with the highly acclaimed Level 1 Productions film, Sunny. Sunny cleaned up at this year’s IF3 Awards, taking home the title for Best Editing, Best Male Performance (Parker White), and Best Film. Anticipation was high when the crew unloaded the Ajax gondola for the showing on the mountain at the Aspen Mountain Sundeck. We joined a buzzing and rambunctious crowd minutes before the lights went down and the film began.
In Sunny, director Josh Berman stands out by keeping the viewers on their toes. Each segment, whether it is Logan Imlach finding an urban skiing line through an abandoned building, or Wiley Miller bringing incredible style to big lines, seems new and refreshing. It was impossible to write a small synopsis of memorable moments because every segment was memorable. However, Parker White’s closing segment is mind blowing. He crushes both big mountain lines and urban jibbing prolifically, reminiscent of Dane Tudor’s opening segment in Every Day’s a Saturday.
Level 1 movies have always been amongst the most creative. In Sunny however, this creativity is combined the highest level skiing in all aspects of the sport. Sunny lives up to the hype.
Sunny Official Trailer from Level 1 on Vimeo.
The run-down: After a crash-themed opening credits, Mike Hornbeck kicks off the film with an urban segment laced with creative jibs and a style that has become Level 1’s trademark over the years. Hornbeck then joins Tom Wallisch and Alex Bellemare to put a unique spin on urban skiing in Japan. The film shifts focus with a super deep pow segment from Tanner Rainville, Adam Delorme, and Eric Pollard. This leads to an individual segment from Pollard, who by constantly re-inventing style has stayed on top of the game. After some backcountry booters from Chris Logan, the film reverts back to the jibbing. Logan Imlach uses an abandoned building in Alaska to create a slopestyle line down the building, drawing tremendous cheers from the packed crowd. The next segment features Justin Dorey, Lucas Stal Madison, Pat Goodnough, Sig Tveit and Aspen’s own Torin Yater-Wallace, who session an awesomely unique feature at Breckenridge. Wiley Miller follows with an individual segment where he brings his playful yet hard charging style to pow lines. Will Wesson puts on an urban clinic, at one point sliding a chain perfectly. The film heads to Sweden’s arctic circle for some frigid jibbing before heading to Sun Valley for what has become Level 1’s trademark park shoot. From there, the film goes to Turkey, where Ahmet Dadali, JP Auclair, and Torin Yater-Wallace continue Level 1’s tradition of taking urban skiing to places it has never been. In the next segment Tom Wallisch and Tim McChesney continue to push what’s possible in the park. We get to watch Josh Bibby tear up pow lines in the Kootenays before Parker White delivers one of the most impressive individual performances of all time.
Be sure to check this one out.
