• Courtesy
• Warren Miller

Earlier this year, skiers and snowboarders heard that, for the first time in 74 years, Warren Miller Entertainment wouldn't put out a new movie — at least not one with fresh footage. It felt like the end of an era.

Miller started his career in 1950 with Deep and Light, setting the template for what's now known in snow sports lingo as the "stoke film," a collection of action clips to get outdoor sports aficionados pumped for the start of the winter season. Living in a teardrop trailer with a roommate, he took a $600 budget and an 8mm Bell+Howell camera and single-handedly created a genre.

The film featured scenes of mountain heroics at a California ski resort, including champion Alpine ski racer Émile Allais teaching a blind man to ski. And Miller established what would become a hallmark of his eventual catalog of more than 70 film projects: his soothing, aw-shucks-style narration, often exhorting folks to hit the slopes.

"Always remember, if you don't do it this year, you'll be one year older when you do," Miller advised in Deep and Light with just the hint of a laid-back Southern Californian accent.

The days of wooden skis, leather boots and 8mm cameras are long gone. Big companies such as Red Bull now produce their own stoke films, such as The Art of Flight (2011). Warren Miller Entertainment has been sold multiple times — it's currently owned by Outside. And the advent of GoPro cameras and drones has transformed the art of making outdoor adventure films that Miller, who died in 2018, pioneered decades ago.

Still, the January 24 announcement of a year without a new stoke film from the company, which came in the form of an Instagram post from longtime Miller collaborator Chris Patterson, was a surprise. "Due to financial challenges at Outside, the executives have chosen to assemble the [movie] entirely with 'existing footage' — no need for a camera crew, plane tickets, lift tickets and for that matter, no need for athletes or snow," Patterson wrote, calling the decision "heartbreaking."

But reports of the death of Miller's films turned out to have been exaggerated.

Later that same day on the company's Facebook page, Warren Miller Entertainment clarified that 2023 was not, as Patterson indicated, the end of new Warren Miller films but the start of a "two-part celebration" leading up to the company's 75th anniversary. All Time, this year's film featuring never-before-seen archival footage, will be followed by a film chock-full of newly shot video.

"I've worked with this company for 24 years now," said Josh Haskins, who produced All Time for Warren Miller Entertainment. "I remember all the talk during the 50th anniversary year, how it's time to move past Warren and it's all about the future, all that stuff. But Warren isn't going anywhere — he's an icon and the grandfather of extreme skiing films."

All Time premiered at the Chicago History Museum in October, paying homage to Miller's legacy and showing the way forward for the company that bears his name. With archival footage of daredevil skiers and brand-new clips of today's up-and-coming athletes, it's a transitional movie from a company navigating its next phase.

Per tradition, the film will tour the country, with Vermont stops at Town Hall Theater in Middlebury on Friday, November 17, and the following day at the Flynn in Burlington.

"All Time is an homage to the past, but it's also only part one of a two-part film," Haskins said by phone. "We're looking back at seven decades of filmmaking with this installment, and next year we'll take a look at what the sport might look like for the next 75 years to come."

• Courtesy
• Brian Rice snowboarding in Park City, Utah

Narrated by former U.S. Ski Team member Jonny Moseley, who hosted MTV's "Real World/Road Rules Challenge," All Time traces the evolution of ski culture and features extreme skiers such as U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Famers Glen Plake, Scot Schmidt, and Vermont brothers John and Dan Egan, as well as new faces Michelle Parker and Marcus Caston.

Unlike Miller with his 8mm, Haskins and his crew employed cutting-edge technology to capture the new stuff, showing the extreme athletes performing from incredible, formerly impossible-to-capture angles.

"The tech has changed, and we have, too," Haskins said. "We get some incredible footage using that tech. But we also try to uphold the pillars of what a Warren Miller film is."

To achieve that, Haskins said, they focused not only on delivering amazing action shots but also on retaining the heart and humor that Miller imparted to his work.

"Warren was a comedian at heart and wanted to make people laugh," Haskins pointed out. "We love when we hear laughter in our theaters. We all feel a responsibility to carry on and uphold the legacy that was created by him. Everyone who worked on this film is emotionally attached to it."

For Haskins, who was raised in Albany, N.Y., carrying on the legacy of Miller is personal. An avid skier himself, he grew up watching Miller's films every year with his family. Experience has taught him to appreciate the sacrifices that Miller made to run a one-man operation for so many years, he said.

By the time Haskins finishes postproduction on a film and starts the tour, he's usually exhausted, physically and mentally. "And I feel like that all while being surrounded by an incredible team that helps me," Haskins said. "Warren was doing it all himself for a long time, and it cost him a lot in his personal life. He pretty much gave up parts of his life to build this brand. So I don't take it lightly at all."

While the film tours the country, Haskins will recharge and prepare for the second installment, celebrating the 75th anniversary of Miller's films. He said working on All Time will remain a career highlight for him, in part because of the time he spent delving into Miller's archives.

"To see all those years of footage was such a special feeling," Haskins said. "It was amazing, how far we've come but also how simple and beautiful the beginning was. It makes you understand how Warren built this brand, and it makes me feel good to continue on with that legacy."

Instead of marking the end of an era, All Time serves as an inflection point in extreme sports filmmaking. Sure, it's a film that looks back, but as Miller himself noted in his 2005 film Higher Ground, that's not always a bad thing.

"The best thing about skiing backward," Miller said, "is you can see where you've been."