Tamashii – A Social Documentary Told Through Skiing

June 10th, 2015

Chillfactor | Annaliese FitzGerald

Filmmaker Ross Reid’s latest project, Tamashii cleverly explores the insidious revolution of the ‘smartphone’ and society’s ever increasing reliance on social media. It observes irony in the way that social platforms are being used as a medium to promote outdoor activities, while actually preventing people from going outside. It raises the uncomfortable question of our dependence on social media for validation of our behaviour.

The result is a social experiment with a close-knit cast of top-tier athletes including: Andy Mahre, Karl Forstvedt, and Anna Segal. The project asked them to unplug for five weeks while on a ski mission in Japan. Three athletes reliant on social media for their profession, hand-picked, and asked to shut off from the world, risking their following, sponsors, and forced to live in the moment. Andy Mahre chosen because of his groundbreaking ski ability and lack of need to share this ability online constantly, something that has arguably led to his oversight on many well-deserved career milestones. Karl Forstvedt because of his strong online presence, reverence amongst the younger freestyle ski demographic, and because he is a far deeper person than many of his fans would ever know, health and environmentally focussed, and more than able to hold his own in a complex philosophical conversation. And Anna Segal because of her glass ceiling shattering achievements in competitive skiing and beyond, namely of representing Australia in the first ever Slopestyle event at the Sochi 2014 Olympics, a feat requiring the kind of rigorous social media engagement and upholding of one’s image this movie questions.

Such a willingness to take on tough issues and imbue meaning in his work is no surprise to those who know Ross. With a formal education in film, a decade’s experience in the action sports film industry shooting everything from fly-fishing to surfing, to starting his own hat company, Rime Knits, in which each hat sale results in a tree planted through donations to the Arbor Day Foundation, and an almost complete MBA, Ross is a busy guy. This breadth of experience goes some way toward explaining his willingness to dissect the complex and take risks, like the risk of beginning Tamashii with zero sponsorship money or funding. He notes that it was at his “big-dog job” as video producer and social media manager at a top corporate ski company that got him first thinking about the issue. It is from here that Ross created the Hemlock Creative, a collective of like-minded individuals who operate independently with the goal building a network of creative artists to inspire people through action sports to take positive environmental action. Tamashii is the Hemlock Creative’s maiden voyage, started boldly out of Ross’s own pocket and those of his dedicated athletes. The lack of production funding was such a nightmare that Ross almost considered pulling the project just weeks before it was scheduled to begin, but he pulled it off through hard work and smart travelling.

Now to get this film out to the public, a Kickstarter initiative has been launched to assist with difficult post-production and distribution costs. It’s only open for a month and there are insane prizes to be won from goggles, ski boots, to customised skis. You can help the cause here

Tamashii is a social documentary not ski porn. At the end of the day, Ross just wants to make it as good as it can be so that as many people as possible can see it. “Hopefully as a result we get some people learning NOT to take a selfie on top of a mountain they just climbed, but instead enjoy the scenery and the people they made it there with. It’s the moment that matters, and it’s the moment you lose every time you pull out your phone to see what’s happening anywhere but where you are”, he says.

It certainly gets you thinking doesn’t it?

Be sure to donate to the Kickstarter and be ready for the Tamashii Project, dropping Fall 2015.