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Ski film a hit in Rossland

Last Friday, Rosslanders had a chance to look into a mirror.
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Vance Shaw and Debbie Hooch-Antink co-produced Powder Highway

Last Friday, Rosslanders had a chance to look into a mirror. That mirror was the documentary The Powder Highway. The movie took the path down the powdery roads asking what it means to live in the Kootenay region from a vertical point of view.

Resorts like Revelstoke, Fernie and of course Rossland were featured, with a cheer going up in the audience for every familiar land mark or familiar face.

This is the third showing.

“The receptions been positive,” said producer Vance Shaw. “It helps that in a community such as Rossland, everyone is passionate about skiing and snowboarding.”

The project took just over a year to plan and film.

“We started raising money in August (2010) and then other resorts agreed to get involved,” he said. “Then we shot all winter. It was super fun. It was really kind of nice to know that we were just going to go out and do a culture movie.

“Obviously we want to get real quality skiing and terrain and all that, but we didn’t have the pressure of the biggest stuff you’ve ever seen.”

He said it was just going to be like playing in the backyard.

“That’s what we were going to capitalize on. That’s what was the most fun,” he said.

“The people have just been great everywhere.”

Sometimes, though, the politics were difficult.

“It’s just impossible to make all the people happy, all the time. I mean there was places where we didn’t have good conditions, so what can you do? There’s nothing you can do.”

Shaw is originally from Northern California, but has been in Canada, started in Whistler, since 1993. From there, he went west and then east.