Before the high-tech advancements of Fiberglas, aluminum poles, release bindings and artificial powder, it was a simpler time in the world of winter sports: It was just you, your skis and the snow that lay ahead. Rounding up works produced in the 1940s, '50s, '60s and '70s by iconic ski-film director John Jay, this retrospective sampler offers a nostalgic look at what's called "the golden age of American skiing."
Known for his commentary-laden chronicles of key moments in winter sports history, the late John Jay is considered by many to be the founding father of the modern-day ski film.
Shot in 1941, this black-and-white instructional film (featuring actor Alan Ladd) serves as a veritable time capsule on the history of the sport, with advice on ski design, schussing, lacquer, wax and toe plates.
Beginning in picturesque Taos, New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range Jay continues on a laugh a minute cruise through Vail and Aspen, Colorado; Klosters and Zermatt, Switzerland; Japan; Sun Valley, Idaho; Mount Snow, Vermont; Persia; and New Zealand.
Famous skier Otto Lang is featured in a short documentary filmed at Mt. Whitney and Mt. Baker, and premiered on 4 February 1938 at Radio City Music Hall with NYC screenings of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).
A film about three ski-bums (Run Funk, Mike Zuetell and Ed Ricks) that are followed by another ski bum (Dick Barrymore),with a 16mm Bolex camera, who filmed a four-month part of their nomadic and vanishing-breed way of life across four continents.
"A group of crazy teenagers break into an abandoned old theater and kill the owners. They dump their bodies in the basement and wake up the Cannibal Demons that have been locked there for over a hundred years.
Just before the advent of the Great Depression, Henry Ford controlled the most important company in the most important industry in the booming American economy.
A gruesome look into the infamous and seemingly neverending 1991 Vizconde murder case in the Philippines where a woman, her teen daughter, and a 6-year-old were all viciously stabbed to death while the husband was away in America on business.
Interviews with celebrities such as Joan Baez, Jackson Browne, Dennis Hopper and Willie Nelson examine the remarkable career of actor-performer Kris Kristofferson, who successfully bridged the gap between Hollywood and Nashville.
As part of the film's promotion, a mockumentary was aired on HBO. Titled Hearts of Hot Shots! Part Deux—A Filmmaker's Apology, the mockumentary parodied Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, the 1991 documentary about the making of the film Apocalypse Now (which starred Charlie Sheen's father, Martin Sheen).
Based on the real life story of Myrna Diones, a 14 year-old survivor of a brutal massacre of her, her sister and their two cousins in the Cordillera mountain range in northern Luzon by the very people who should've protect them, policemen .
When a woman dies in a supposed accident, her parents suspect their son-in-law of foul play. When the police begin to agree, the murder suspect vanishes.
The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.
He is a writer and Ángela, a mature woman, is his domestic employee. Since he can't find inspiration, he decides to accompany her on her work day to other houses.
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Have you watched Ski Down the Years yet? What did you think about it?
