This year’s Warren Miller film is unlike any other

The opening scene in this year’s Warren Miller ski film, “All Time,” begins with grainy black-and-white ski footage and narration intended to emulate the movie-house newsreels of the 1900s. After a brief overview of the roots of skiing, the narrator introduces the man who created the ski film genre more than 70 years ago.

“A beach bum named Warren Miller decided windburn was better than sunburn, and noticed that toting a camera around the mountain got him a lot of dates,” the narrator says. “So, in 1949, he made a ski movie. In 1950, he made another ski movie. And another, and another … .”

Thus begins a Warren Miller film like no other. This one is intended to celebrate the creator of the series, who sold the company in 1988 and died in 2018, as well as his ongoing legacy. With the 75th anniversary of his first film, “Deep and Light,” coming next year, this year’s film celebrates the past. Next year’s will look at where skiing, snowboarding and the film genre they inspire may be heading.

“All Time,” which will be playing at the Boulder Theater Nov. 9-11 and the Paramount in downtown Denver Nov. 16-18, has the usual assortment of beginner falls, ripping powder shots, bone-shaking crashes, and big-mountain skiers and snowboarders outrunning avalanches in exotic locales. But it’s also designed to show the evolution of skiing, decade by decade, beginning with wooden skis and leather boots, Hollywood stars in Sun Valley and dancers in stretch pants doing the twist in après-ski haunts.

Its arc includes the advent of snowboarding, big-mountain heli-skiing and terrain parks. The film was created in Boulder at the offices of Outside Interactive Inc., which owns Warren Miller Entertainment.

“I think what I’m most proud of is getting a cross-section of 74 years of films into an hour-long program, and without feeling like just an hour-long montage of shots, but applying some sort of structure to it,” director Josh Haskins said in an interview. “I’m proud of building those decade pieces into it, to give a bit of structure, while also being able to get as many athletes who have been involved over the years into the film as possible. To be able to show as many moments as we could, without it feeling too quick-cutty or too fast-paced.”

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It’s been almost 20 years since Miller was involved with films that still bear his name, but his presence is palpable in every scene, with “pillars of filmmaking that Warren created over the years,” Haskins said. “Great action, comedy and global adventure are pillars that we try and focus on each year, and are things that were so important to Warren when he was the guy.”

It wasn’t easy to distill, because there was so much great material.