STORY BY KAREN BOSSICK

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE HOMEGROWN FILM FESTIVAL

It has evolved from a crazy idea to a must-see event, says filmmaker Spencer Cordovano.

And now the Homegrown Film Festival is drawing in viewers from as far away as Chamonix, France, and getting film submissions from McCall and other ski towns.

The sixth annual Homegrown Film Festival on Saturday, Dec. 3, will feature an array of new short films depicting the mountain lifestyle. And its new matinee component will feature vintage films, including two starring Captain Powder David Moe, who co-founded “Powder” magazine in Sun Valley with brother Jake 50 years ago.

“I’m kind of a thrift-store, Army-surplus-store guy and I saw what the 10^th Mountain Division wore in World War II so I bought a suit and white helmet and all the accessories. Then I figured I might as well go all the way and paint my face white,” said Moe.

“I’d Rather Be Skiing Than Happy With You,” which Moe made in Jackson Hole with Chamonix, France, filmmaker Gary Bigham, is a silly, fun movie that provides a good visual summary of various skiing disciplines and skiing history.

“It’s a pretty goofy movie that I think will resonate with the viewers. Gary Bigham and his daughter have remastered the film so it should be way better than the original,” added Moe.

The Homegrown Film Festival has expanded this year to include an afternoon matinee and a livestream screening and party at Ketchum’s Limelight Hotel:

• 3-6 p.m. The afternoon matinee at The Argyros will feature 3- to 5-minute films from amateurs and 10-minute films from professionals. There also will be a 25-minute film with Chase Josey, as well as an hour of classic vintage ski films, including Moe’s remastered 1991 film “I’d Rather Be Skiing…” and the remastered 1985 film “Life is a Beach in the Alps.” There also will be a film by the late Sun Valley filmmaker Dick Barrymore.

  Matinee tickets are $8 at www.homegrownfilms.org. Or, you can buy an all-access matinee and Homegrown Film Festival ticket for $30.

• 6:30-9 p.m. Homegrown Film Festival at The Argyros. There will be an hour of local films and an hour of professional films. Films range from local skiers airing it big off the Proctor Mountain jump to a look at big mountain skier McKenna Peterson spending her summers slashing spines and captaining a fishing boat in Alaska while skiing off-piste every winter. There’s also a film showing how locals are helping to protect treasured public lands with their cinematic efforts.

  Jack Weekes created a serigraph of Abe’s Chair, which burned in the Ross Fork Fire this summer.

  Tickets are $25, available at www.homegrownfilms.org. Or you can buy a $30 all-access ticket for the matinee and evening show.

• 6:30-10:30 p.m.—Homegrown Film Festival Realtime Live Stream and Party at the Limelight Hotel. This will be a chat-and-hang style viewing and afterparty. Cost is $10, available at https://friends.sawtoothavalanche.com/shop-sac/

  “Last year we did two film showings back-to-back. This year we’re doing one and livestreaming to the hotel which will have a big screen in the back with an afterparty,” said Cordovano. “And the Limelight is donating a bunch of the proceeds to the avalanche center.”

  This year’s Friends of the Sawtooth Avalanche Center raffle will include such prizes as a Sun Valley Heli lift to the top of Baldy for four, Black Diamond skis, Line skis, Reflux ski poles, ski passes, dining certificates, Pit Viper sunglasses and other ski gear.

  Jack Weekes, who creates posters featuring iconic couloirs for the festival, has produced 50 hand-pulled serigraph prints of Abe’s Chair above Smiley Creek. Abe’s Chair burned during last summer’s Ross Fork Fire, which took out three cabins in Smiley Creek.

  Prints cost $100 each—“a steal for original artwork of this caliber with the bonus of supporting the Sawtooth Avalanche Center,” said fellow artist Tina Cole.

  The Homegrown Film Festival, which is supported by Bex Wilkinson and the Marshall Frankel Foundation, began with two missions in mind:

• Showcase the creativity and talent among the valley’s skiers and boarders, filmmakers and photographers.
• Raise funds for the Friends of the Sawtooth Avalanche Center, which uses them to fund forecasters.

To date the film festival has raised more than $50,000 through sponsorships, ticket sales, the raffle and sales of Weekes’ custom serigraphs.  This year the Sawtooth Avalanche has brought on a fifth forecaster to help provide forecasts for the 2,500-square-mile (1.6 million acre) area that sees winter recreational use.

The forecasters provide free, daily, know-before-you-go reports, on the website and educational classes for youth and adults living, working and recreating in the mountains.

“The festival was Tina Cole’s idea,” said Cordovano. “She said, ‘You guys go out and do these cool films and we hear about the trips that you go on. Then we never see the films because they go to the ski companies that put them on their channels.”

Last year’s film festival included a fast-paced spoof on back country cooking, skiers hucking it off cliffs during the Sun Valley’s three-day snowpalooza, a motorcycle ride over Himalayan passes, a recap of the drone show The Argyros put on and a spoof of K-Rino’s “Hidden Agenda.”

This year’s includes a locally-based film from Nomadic Vans, which imports Japanese vans and converts them into four-wheel drive with the steering wheel on the other side. It features a film from an Argentinian about being one with nature in Alaska, one following local youth who built a trail for ecotourism in Kauai and a recap of the Dollar Mountain Party on the Hill during the 2022 Ski Hall of Fame induction at Sun Valley.

There also is a PSA made by Ketchum filmmaker Gerry Moffatt that explains how invaluable avalanche centers can be for police, fire and snowplow drivers, in addition to extreme skiers and backcountry skiers.

“This festival is a great chance for local kids to get their names on films and see their stuff up there with the pros,” said Cordovano. “We get stuff from 15-year-old kids, people making videos with iPhones. And some of that stuff is more interesting, funnier, less corporate, than the professional films.”