Yesterday evening Standard Films Black Winter debuted to a sold out audience of more than 350 people in the prairie city of Calgary, Alberta. People began to amass at The Plaza Theatre over an hour and half before the movie was set to begin and frantically tap the Steam Whistle beer and Monster Energy reserves. Albertans are savages; a reputation supported not only by their massive secret jumps but also by their massive bar tabs (it’s part of their appeal). Especially savage is Calgary’s weather. It might be ‘summer’ as you enter the theatre and ‘winter’ as you leave so it’s in your best interest to pay close attention to the movie and build that trick list because you might be snowboarding sooner than you thought.

Faces began to stream into the theatre and amongst the anticipation some of Canada’s finest riders could be seen shuffling into the theatre including Raewyn Reid, Dustin Craven and late arrival Leanne Pelosi. With a good sprinkling of celebrity athletes in attendance, and the sound of smuggled beers being uncomfortably opened, it was show time! Footage that really had people going was Monster Energy athlete Torstein Horgmo’s insane park follow-cam and Xavier Delerue’s savage rock lines. Chas Guldemond’s part was also one to soak up because he completed an entire video part in spite of spending most of his time at contests landing tricks with obscene rotations and gymnast precision (recall that Chas recently led the TTR World Tour by landing on the podium of almost every major slope style contest in the world). Monster Energy athlete Leanne Pelosi had some respectable rail representation and shares a section with always-colourful Andrew Geeves. There was also abundant avalanche footage in Black Winter, leading one to wonder if perhaps those close calls were the inspiration for the movie’s title.