LUCA ALBRISI’S LATEST FILM PROJECT began with a couple of false starts. He originally planned to film his movie about a group of friends crossing the Dolomites on skis and splitboards (snowboards that split in two to act as touring skis) in 2019 but there wasn’t enough snow. A problem he describes as increasingly common due to rising temperatures caused by the climate crisis.
Then, in 2020, just before they were about to set off, the pandemic struck, closing ski resorts, and forcing them, like the rest of the world, to shelter in place. A year later, the resorts were still closed but the snow was good, and they could finally film their trip.
Luca’s initial premise had been to show the contrast between quiet, pristine valleys shaped by nature and super-busy ski resorts shaped by humans, teeming with people and lift infrastructure.
But as they zigzagged up the empty pistes, the static chairlifts above them seemingly frozen in time, the project took on new meaning and significance., for Luca, it became a meditation through an imaginary space of “what remains of our modernity when it is emptied and laid bare”.
