Page 2 July 9, 2020
Ski Bum: The Warren Miller Story
Celebrates the Life of a Snowbound Legend
By Ryan Rojas, Executive Editor
www.cinemacy.com
If, like me, you have never skied in your
life, the name Warren Miller is likely a name
that you haven’t heard before. If however,
you are an avid skier, or winter sports fan
of any kind, then the name Warren Miller
is a legendary one, synonymous with the
very sport of skiing itself. As I found after
watching the new documentary Ski Bum: The
Warren Miller Story, even though I fall into
the former category of having not known of
Miller, afterwards, I was left moved by the
story of a man who – like Steve Jobs, or
Henry Ford, or his idol, Walt Disney before
him – became a titan of their industry and
popularized an entire sport itself.
Directed by Patrick Creadon (Wordplay,
Catholics vs. Convicts), Ski Bum tells the
story of Warren Miller and his 55-year career
as a skier and filmmaker, which Miller
himself recounts for the film (as Miller
would pass away a few short months after
sitting for the interview, his presence gives
the documentary even more significance).
As he remembers at his Orcas Island, WA
lodge, growing up a surfer in Hermosa
Beach, he would eventually hear the calls
of the nearby Californian snowy mountains
and shortly thereafter dedicate his life to
hitting those slopes – soon proudly calling
himself a “ski bum” by dedicating his weekend
to sleeping in his car and hunting rabbits
to stay up there. Miller would also take his
8mm camera and shoot his skiing, eventually
making movies that would snowball (pun
intended) into Warren Miller Productions,
with Miller shooting, editing, narrating, and
marketing these new ski movies himself. His
eventual road shows would turn into annual
events, gaining legions of fans around the
world that would popularize the sport of
skiing and in the process, immortalize his
name with it.
With interviews from Olympic skier Jonny
Moseley and skier/filmmaker Greg Stump,
among others, Ski Bum isn’t short of subjects
willing to sit for the film to celebrate their
idol. Yet the most striking part of Ski Bum
is the film’s use of archival footage, which
features never before seen pictures and videos
from the Warren Miller Entertainment library.
As associate producer and assistant editor H.
Nelson Tracey notes, “we accessed film reels
that had never before been digitized! There
are some unbelievable shots unearthed specifically
for this film. In many ways, making
this documentary was a bit of a scavenger
hunt.” This beautifully rendered early-50s
and 60s footage transports audiences not
only to just beautiful mountain slopes, but
to another time altogether.
And while Ski Bum is a gorgeous celebration
of the man, the film also digs deeper,
past the surface-level snow, to reveal darker
moments in Miller’s life, including having an
alcoholic father, the passing of a first wife,
and financial hardships that would at one
point bankrupt Warren Miller Productions.
It’s these moments that his children (who
also sit for the film) speculate as to why he
himself was a figure who wasn’t always there
for his family, pursuing his life’s mission
and larger goals. One thing’s for sure: Ski
Bum will make you realize the magnificence
of a man who saw not just the beauty in
mountains, but shared that magnificence to
the world, who will celebrate him on the
slopes for all time.
Ski Bum: The Warren Miller Story is now
available to rent on Amazon, GooglePlay,
YouTube and iTunes, as well as available to
purchase on Blu-ray or DVD on Amazon. •
Ski Bum: The Warren Miller Story courtesy Gravitas Ventures.
Ryan Rojas
Huber’s Hiccups
Your Neighborhood Therapist
Dear Neighborhood Therapist,
I have been under a lot of stress lately, and
I think it would help me to talk to someone,
but I am a little bit nervous about calling a
therapist. I am not sure what to expect, and I
am not sure if I am ready to spill my deepest
and darkest secrets to a stranger. I’m also
not sure how I will know if it is “working.”
I have anxiety about finding a therapist on
top of the anxiety I am already experiencing!
– Doubly Stressed, Manhattan Beach
Dear Doubly Stressed,
I am very glad that you asked these questions.
Making that initial call to a therapist
can be intimidating and stressful. I’ll take
your questions one by one, and hopefully
this will clear things up a little bit.
What to expect: expect somebody who is
kind and is genuinely interested in you and
in helping you confront the problems that
have come into your life. If you get the sense
that they don’t care, or that they are uninterested
in what is happening in your life, or if
they promise to solve unsolvable problems,
try somebody else. The good news is that
most therapists do care, most are genuinely
interested (that’s why they do this work in
the first place), and most won’t promise you
easy or formulaic solutions.
Trust your instincts in this department: you
should like your therapist, and they should
like you. If you’re not feeling it, that’s totally
fine. Nobody is a perfect fit for everyone else.
Regarding your deepest, darkest secrets:
you may find you end up wanting to tell your
therapist about all of them, but you might
not. While it is part of a therapist’s job to
ask hard questions sometimes, these questions
should always be in service of facing
the problem at hand, and never designed to
voyeuristically elicit gratuitous details. You
don’t have to - and shouldn’t be expected
to - answer questions that make you feel
worse. Even in the most delicate situations,
you should never, never, never feel shamed
by your therapist.
How will you know it’s working? If the
problems that you or your family are facing
begin to look slightly different, further away,
or less powerful. Not all problems can be
solved, and not everything is always going to
be okay (I wish this was not true, but it is).
Some problems are just too big or insidious,
but you will not be alone in facing them.
Looking at a list of therapists can be
intimidating. If you are anxious about choosing,
just call the first one, or the last one, or
use any criterion you like. There is no such
thing as a perfect fit, but spending a few
minutes on the phone so that you can get a
sense of who we are is part of the job. So
is answering any questions you may have
about working together. Helping the people
who call us find a good fit - even if we are
not that person - is, yes, also part of our job.
Please write to tom@tomandrecounseling.
com or text to 310.776.5299 with questions
about handling what is affecting your life,
your family, the community or the world.
Tom Andre is a Licensed Marriage & Family
Therapist (LMFT119254). The information
in this column is for educational purposes
only and nothing herein should be construed
as professional advice or the formation of a
therapeutic relationship. •
Who Said That?
Hope you all had a great 4th of
July weekend. I received a lot of
favorable comments concerning
my American History postings
from last week. People seem to
like good patriotic writing instead
of the junk that I normally throw
out at them on a weekly basis. I
bet some of you even had a cold
one or two without me telling
you to. Here are the answers to
the quote quiz. The quiz winner got nine
out of the ten answers correct. He is a
reader who lives in Missouri. The only one
he missed was #7. It was a tough one. 1.
George Washington 2. Benjamin Franklin
3. Patrick Henry 4. Thomas Jefferson 5.
Abraham Lincoln 6. Theodore Roosevelt 7.
J. Robert Oppenheimer, who is the father
of the atomic bomb 8. Martin Luther King,
Jr. 9. Ronald Reagan 10. George W. Bush.
That was kind of fun! So, here is
another one. The category this week
is American National Parks: Name
the state in which these national
parks are located: 1.) Mammoth
Cave 2.) Lassen Volcanic 3.) Kenai
Fjords 4.) Saguaro 5.) Mesa
Verde 6.) Olympic No cheating,
don’t use Google!
Flatten the Fear
Who knows where we are at on
the curve? We did what we were
told at the beginning to help flatten the curve,
but now it seems like another curve has
hit us. It’s hard to know if we are winning
this battle, losing, or just floating through
the ups and downs of the virus reporting
rapids. Since we have been given so many
directions, I thought I would pass on a list
that was given to me recently by a friend.
Here we go: Make sure you test positive for
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See Huber’s Hiccups, page 4
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you have any doubts about the nature of a company, contact the local office of the Better Business Bureau, (213) 251-9696. Herald
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Employment
Part-time Sales. Looking for motivated
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Typewriters, sewing machines, military,
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Trade. We sell for you on EBAY. Studio
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