OvR Gets a Healthy Dose of Inspiration From Awesome People and an Epic Film

Premieres are one of our favorite aspects of the snowboarding community. They allow us to reconnect with friends, get pumped for the upcoming season, see the progression of the sport, and lets face it, party. The premiere of Into the Mind was a bit different, but in such an amazing way. Lets start with the obvious, Into the Mind is not a snowboard film. It’s a ski film defining it’s own genera, blending narrative story with intense skiing. The film follows the hero through many stages to overcome his greatest challenge. Sherpas Cinema delivers a film that brings the viewer into the mind of a person dealing with the pressures of his own desires to achieve greatness while battling the unforgiving mountain. It is a film like none we’re seen before and it is definitely one we want to watch over and over. Please do yourself a favor and check out this film, even if you don’t ski or snowboard.

Check out Into the Mind’s tour dates for additional East coast premieres HERE.

Trailer:

You can download the film HERE

The Event Showcased Tibetan Prayer Flags

While the film filled us with inspiration to over come our own challenges on and off the mountain, it was the people we met that really impressed us the most. Our point person, Brandon Friese, is Sherpas Cinema’s North America Event Management Specialist, as well as The North Face Speaker Series Road Manager, and an all around awesome dude. From our first email introduction to us meeting at Symphony Space, Brandon was super accommodating with providing us VIP tickets (Free Lagunitas and Chipotle) and then taking time to talk with us about Into the Mind’s premiere run. He even introduced us to adventure sports photographer and film making legend, Jimmy Chin.

We’ve been fortunate enough to have different sponsors to help raise money for nonprofits, such as Protect Our Winters and Alpine Initiatives. Here tonight in New York, we partnered with local nonprofits, which is great because generally we work with our film nonprofits, but we had Discover Outdoors Foundation and The Peaks Projects, who helped promote the film. Their main concept and goal is to get people whom might not be able to afford or are not privileged enough and enjoy the winter and the places we love to explore. We partnered with Lagunitas to help raise money for them tonight. – Brandon

We could have talked with Brandon all night, wanting to hear more about his work with the Speaker Series as well as some really cool top secret things he has been working on lately. The man truly has a huge heart and it’s exciting to meet people like him leading the charge in providing those less fortunate with opportunities to explore the world we live in. This excitement drove us to seek out the two nonprofits Brandon mentioned; Discover Outdoors Foundation and The Peaks Projects. We found wilderness guide Evan Oppenheimer and marketing director Beth Harrison from Discover Outdoors Foundation at Jimmy’s signing table. They shared with us the work they’ve been doing:

“I look at where we (Discover Outdoors) go in nature as a home, it’s where we come from. The movie was cool in showing the different connections we have and the flow that exists through nature, weather you’re in the water or in the mountains.” – Evan

One lucky person got a custom Jimmy mountain

Beth informed us the foundation has been going strong since 2012 and has given 1200 children the opportunity to discover the outdoors. The foundation focuses on increasing graduation rates in New York and Philadelphia by providing children educational experiences through outdoor exploration. They work with the schools and teachers to create outings that coincide with the schools curriculum. This year Beth is excited to be working with a school in the Bronx to coordinate six trips through out the year, with the hope to create a lasting relationship with the kids involved. Please check out Discover Outdoors Foundation and if you’re looking to contribute to their cause they are having a fundraiser October 24th at Brooklyn Brewery.

Fundraiser details HERE

Feeling proud to be apart of this event, we headed over to talk with the folks at The Peaks Project, who were passing out samples of ski/snowboard wax they collaborated with East Coast Wax. At the table was founder, Molly Tarlofsky, and Business Development Coordinator, Mateusz Patrosz. After introducing ourselves we got to hear what’s going on with their organization and their kick ass wax.

“Dave and Kyle from East Coast Wax were super excited to help us out and the organization. They are awesome, two guys coming out of Buffalo hand making all their wax, and we’re stocked to have them on board with us.” – Mateusz

Molly told us this is The Peaks Project’s first year and they can’t wait to start bring inner city kids to the mountain to learn how to ski and snowboard. The nonprofit’s big push right now is to get enough funds from their fundraiser, up and ready for donations on Indiegogo.com. These guys have so much energy for this project, we at OvR know they are going to change some lives for the better.

The Peaks Project’s Indiegogo donations can be made HERE

Sherpas Cinema’s Into the Mind had an epic premiere for an epic film. OvR wants to extend a huge thank you to Brandon, Jimmy, Evan, Beth, Molly, and Mateusz for talking with us, getting us pumped for this season, and for what they are doing to get people on the mountain.