PUSH TO PULL: MSP athletes present a premiere of their own
One night after its WORLD PREMIERE OF PUSH atop Whistler Mountain, Matchstick Productions continued the party with its debut of Pull, a longer, less hacked version of MSP’s footage, edited mostly by the athletes and intended for the core skier.
Both the skiers and MSP crew praised Pull as an opportunity for the athletes to choose their footage and decide what they want it to look like. Mike Douglas said the film was an outlet of how the athletes view themselves.
“It’s cool to let them pick their lines and show them in their entirety. In the movie they get hacked up. Pull is a chance to let them do what they want,” says MSP cinematographer and producer Riley Poor.
Poor explained that the film is great for skiers like Eric Hjorleifson, a big mountain skier that likes showing his whole line from top to bottom.
“This (film) represents everything that we tried to make happen. And I’m stoked for that, and I think the core ski fan will appreciate that,” says Hjorleifson. “There are lines that make for epic descents, but because of time restraints get cut. This way we get to see it all–the whole package.”
Poor also commended Pull for the opportunity to have segments for athletes like Jon Larsson and Ike Smith. Larsson raised money with sponsors to put together footage that included music from a Swedish band singing a song they wrote together. Poor said it was so good they had to include it. Ike Smith, a jump builder and friend of Eric Pollard, would always go out and hit the jumps after building them, and ended up putting together great footage as well. That’s what Pull is all about, says Poor.
Shown to a standing crowd on the sticky floors of Garfinkles, the intimate audience, which included the athletes and film crew, was representative of who this film was intended for, and contrasted with the hullabaloo of the previous nights’ premiere of Push.
But though the night was a bit more low key, that didn’t stop the dancing to ensue, where Sarah Burke and friends threw down.
This is the second year MSP has included an athlete’s version of their footage. Last year, The Hit List was accompanied with The Hit List Remix. A purchase of PUSH includes the DVD of Pull.
