BY KAREN BOSSICK

Last March and April Sun Valley Ski Education Nordic ski team alum Mali Noyes skied all 93 lines in Utah’s Chuting Gallery in 47 days, smashing a record as she skied some of the steepest ski lines in the Wasatch Mountains.

The exploits of the nurse at Huntsman’s Center in Salt Lake City were captured on film, and Wood River Valley residents will be able to see it on Saturday when “The Chuting Gallery” is shown at the 9th annual Homegrown Film Festival.

Noyes’ film will showcase the challenge she took on, which was inspired by Andrew McLean’s book, “The Chuting Gallery: A Guide to Steep Skiing in the Wasatch Mountains.”

Mali Noyes skis Thompson in the Little Cottonwood Canyon of the Wasatch Range near Salt Lake City. COURTESY: Mali Noyes

The Homegrown Film Festival will showcase a plethora of 2- and 3-minute films and longer films made by aspiring local photographers. Some of the filmmakers are in their teens; others are professionals.

The films will be shown twice on Saturday, Nov. 29, at The Argyros in Ketchum. The 4 p.m. matinee costs $15 and the 7:30 p.m. show, $20. This year’s festival, presented by Home Grown Films Corp., Bex Wilkinson and the Marshall Frankel Foundation, will honor the memory of Chuck Ferries, Tom Heinrich, Roger Dubree and Konrad Staudinger, all of whom passed away this year.

Silent auction items and raffle tickets good for a heli-ski trip and outdoor gear will be sold to benefit the Sawtooth Avalanche Center. Additionally, Jack Weekes has donated 50 hand-screened serigraphs of the Elevator Shaft on McDonald Peak in the Sawtooth Mountains. They will be for sale for $100 each to fund operations and staffing at the Avalanche Center.

The Film Festival will showcase exceptional films by amateurs and pros alike,” said Tina Cole, who has been with the Homegrown Film Festival since its beginnings.

Jack Weekes has created 50 commemorative hand-screened serigraph prints each year of the Homegrown Film Festival. This year’s serigraph print is of The Elevator Shaft on McDonald Peak in the Sawtooth Mountains.

Many of the amateur and professional athletes in the films are current or former members of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation, which is a force in Alpine, Nordic, Snowboard, Free Ski, Park and Pipe and Big Mountain nationally,” added Cole.

They include Charlie Theobald, Chase Cleveland, Chelsea Handler, Cooper Morton, Dylan Pterson, Elliott Burks, Finn Wolfrom Jackson Flynn, Liz chamberlain, Michael dunning, Nate Sheehan, Ryan Rosmarin, Tom Iselin and Will Burks.

“The films this year are superb,” Cole said. “The young amateurs have produced remarkable short films, along with some of the best Alaskan footage I have seen by Yancy Caldwell and Karl Fostvedt. Then there is the incredible Chuting Gallery accomplishment by Mali Noyes.” 

The Homegrown Film Festival was founded as a grassroots fundraiser for the nonprofit Friends of the Sawtooth Avalanche Center to help fund avalanche forecasting in an area from the Smoky Mountains near Fairfield to the Sawtooth Mountains near Stanley.

It started with a single projector and a small group of friends and has grown into a one-night film festival with a local buzz equal to that of Warren Miller’s long-running kick-off-to-winter ski flicks.

It gives local kids the chance to debut their films on the big screen, and it gives valley residents a chance to see friends and family taking part in the exploits that they love.

In the future Homegrown Film Festival plans to produce and fund its own independent films, said Cole.

“Homegrown could not happen the way it does without the incredible support of our major sponsor Bex Wilkinson and The Marshall Frankel Foundation,” she added.