Photos: Matt Stauble

It was a good weekend to be a skier. And a better weekend to be a skier in Montreal.

The third annual IF3 took over the city from Thursday through Sunday. Films were premiered all day, and parties went on through the night. The only time available for sleep was between 6am and noon. But no one was complaining.

Thursday
The whole shebang got going Thursday night. First, Simon Dumont’s new movie, Transitions, premiered at the North Face Outdoor Screening in the historic Old Port area of Montreal. Riley Poor’s creation came to life on the big screen as hordes watched the movie for the first time, including Simon, who had not yet seen the movie. Transitions plays out as a history of park skiing with commentary from Johnny D, Mike Douglas and others. As Simon’s career grows, the focus of the movie switches from history to Simon’s life, with commentary from Simon’s mother. The movie is a great retelling of the recent history of skiing, with some serious action thrown in throughout.

After the movie, everyone moved on to La Mouche for the Newschoolers 10 Year Anniversary Party. Doug Bishop and I played a dual DJ set to warm up the crowd for A-Rock, who crushed it. Like every party over the weekend, it was awesome. But, it was a party, so I don’t have much to say about it… other than a ton of friends got together and had a ton of fun.

Friday
Friday marked the official start of the main attraction of IF3, the movie premieres. Eight movies showed at the glorious Imperial Theatre, including Rage’s Pretty Good, Meathead’s Wild Stallions and Sammy’s movie, Can’t Stop. But it was Level 1 Productions’ Refresh that really stole the show. About 1,000 people were in attendance and the crowd was ROWDY. Chants broke out constantly, the place erupted in cheer as Phil Casabon and Tom Wallisch showed everyone what was up. Not to mention, the legend himself, Warren Miller, did opening and closing voice overs for the film as a sort of “passing the torch” between Warren and Berman. It was well-received in the theatre, and added the cherry to the cake for Level 1.

With about seven hours of movies completed, it was time for a little more partying, courtesy of Reebok. Imposs (from Muzion), Rahzel and JS-1 and DJ Premier were the main attractions and they kept the place going strong deep into the night.

Saturday
Saturday’s events started at noon, and I can’t really speak to the movies that showed at that time, but I’m sure they were entertaining. Between noon and 10:00, 10 movies played, ending with Contrast by Nimbus, Eyes Wide Open by Field, Everyday is a Saturday by PBP and In Deep by Matchstick. It was a heavy-hitting evening with the films, especially EDIAS and In Deep, drawing huge crowds and applause. In Deep ended with a great tribute to Shane McConkey, highlighting some of his best shots throughout his career of shooting with MSP.

And what is there to do after 10 hours of ski-movie watching? Well, partying, of course. Saturday night’s reason was the Newschoolers Awards. Here are the big winners:

Best Film: Everyday is a Saturday, Poor Boyz Productoins
Best Male Performance: Dane Tudor, Everyday is a Saturday
Best Female Performance: Ingrid Backstrom, In Deep

The other reason for the Saturday night party was that it was the last night to party. The evening ended with every pro and am skier in the world (it seemed) dancing on stage, celebrating the weekend. There was much to celebrate, that’s for sure.

Sunday
On Sunday, the industry descended on Carte Blanche, a summit put together to discuss the state of the industry, what’s good and what’s not. It was a good time for athletes, marketers and media to get together and speak openly about what’s going on in freeskiing today.

To close out the festival, The Edge of Never played at The North Face Outdoor Screen. The Edge of Never is a documentary about Kye Peterson skiing the line that took his father’s life 13 years ago. It features Glenk Plake and a host of other skiing icons.

Time to go home
After four big days of new movies, parties and industry chit chat, IF3 came to a close. The festival seems to be growing at a rapid pace and is attracting a bigger section of the industry and a bigger group of skiers each year. With talk about doing another festival in Toronto this year and one in France in the future, the IF3 is quickly becoming the hottest festival in skiing.