One of the most beautiful backcountry ski movies of all time is about to drop and Coast Mountain Culture magazine is proud to be a title sponsor. Watch the trailer for “Numinous“ and read our interview with director Nic Teichrob.

Kye Petersen is blowing the doors off big mountain skiing and Dendrite Studios has been there to capture it all. The professional skier, who resides on the south coast of British Columbia, is heavily featured in the beautiful new Numinous film by Dendrite Studios, which will celebrate its world premiere on Friday, September 22nd in Vancouver. Coast Mountain Culture magazine is proud to be a sponsor of the flick, which was shot entirely in British Columbia, and we caught up with director Nic Teichrob to learn more about how a next-level ski film is made.

Hey Nic. Tell us a bit about Dendrite studios like how you got started

Dendrite Studios is a partnership between Athan Merrick and me. We began with our first film, a ski film, in 2010 called Out of the Shadows. That film was produced on a shoestring budget but managed to turn a bunch of heads and took home “Best Big Mountain Movie” at the IF3 International Freeski Film Festival that year, against the veteran big players. Since then we have done this and that, shorts, commercials, the Stand film (with Anthony Bonello), projection installations, and most recently were the film team behind the large-scale salmon installation Uninterrupted in Vancouver.

Isn’t a “dendrite” something to do with a nerve ending?

I have an Masters of Science in Hydrology and it is this background that influenced our name, Dendrite Studios. Dendritic patterns appear throughout the natural world, in particular throughout the water-based world of erosion and deposition. Dendrites are also nerve endings in the brain, but our name was designed to be more generic, a reflection of all fractal dendritic forms, where each one is unique and chaotic by nature, scale independent and ubiquitous through the natural world. “Every shot is unique” was our OG slogan and I think that still stands this day.

We’ve heard from those who’ve seen sneak pics of Numinous that it’s a next-level ski film. What makes it different?

Ha! well You should ask those people what makes it different! I think by nature of the fact that we are making a ski film inherently makes it different. We don’t pump out a film a year or two or three even. It’s been seven years since we completed Out of the Shadows and are now returning with a bunch of ideas, simple yet complex. Honestly I don’t even watch many ski films anymore, but when elements of art start showing up, I pay attention. With Numinous we are seeking to share the richest of experiences, numinous experiences, feelings of connectivity and even spirituality. At Dendrite we are huge proponents of visual storytelling and the power of the moving image married with beautiful music/sound, but sans voice. This allows the viewer to keep their own voice or emotions applied to the film as they watch it, and thus we feel a more indepth experience is then facilitated. Further, it removes any communication barrier as the language of images and sounds are universal. Without throwing judgement on other films, what we do is what we do and there’s no bridle on those ideas, and in working with Kye Petersen we have found a partnership that is on the same creative page.

Yeah, how is it working with Kye Petersen.

Kye is an incredibly talented skier, one of the best in the world no doubt. With over a decade of filming under his belt, Kye wanted to do something bigger, something with more of his vision, something that could showcase his best skiing. We all share the same numinous-esque feelings out in the mountains and Kye’s creativity in how he looks at a mountain face has coupled well with our creativity in how we see a mountain face from behind a camera. The skiing in Numinous is next level for sure, and in terms of the cinematography and editing and such, well I’ll just leave that up to the masses to decide on their own. We’ve definitely put our best foot forward and are all in on this project.

What was your favourite aspect of the project?

When the last second of the first screening is complete! Then the stress will fade knowing the project is done and has been successfully screened. Aside from that, I think one of the funnest was a trip to Chatter Creek in Golden, BC, this past Spring. We had an insanely talented crew with Kye, Matty Richard, Dane Tudor, and Logan Pehota. Everyone was in full beast mode skiing and snow conditions and light and the terrain at Chatter were collectively all time. It was one of those perfect trips and when everything is firing like that and athletes feeding off each other, that’s when magic happens.

What was your favourite scene to shoot?

Numinous is full of individually beautiful moments, and each of those moments have a story of connection and flow and patience. Personally one of my favourite moments was during a sunrise shoot of the Tantalus mountains, where two ravens were playing with each other and then took off and started flying with the purple hues of sunrise on the mountains in the background, it was a moment that was absolutely impossible to predict, re-create, or construct in any way shape or form. We have a lot of moments like this that are the product of our passion for high-level captures and the effort to go out time after time after time seeking to observe and capture greatness has yielded some times in nature that will surely resonate with viewers globally.

Numinous features Kye Petersen with Matty Richard, Logan Pehota, Pep Fujas, Ryland Bell, Tatum Monod, Chris Rubens, Callum Pettit, Dane Tudor, and Wiley Miller. It was shot exclusively in British Columbia, on location at Whistler Blackcomb, Tantalus, Coast Range, Interior, Chatter Creek – Golden, Mt. Meager Massif, and Pemberton. Sponsors include Patagonia, Gibbons Apres Lager, Buff, Rossignol, Whistler Blackcomb, Oakley, Coast Mountain Culture and supported by Intuition, MSR, Chatter Creek, and G3. The World Premiere and Afterparty Friday is September 22nd at the Imperial in downtown Vancouver. Doors open at 8pm. Show starts at 9pm. Party until late. 19+. Tickets can be purchased here. There will be showings in Whistler, BC on Sept. 30th. The earlier show is all ages and the late show is 19+.