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Sandbox’s big night out

Local film production team wraps up premiere tour in Whistler this weekend

What: All Day Every Day

When: Saturday, Nov. 22, doors at 8 p.m.

Where: Westin Hotel, Emerald Ballroom Admission: $10

There may not be any serious snow on the slopes of Whistler or Blackcomb yet, but there will be plenty of powder on the big screen this weekend, courtesy of a local film production crew.

Kevin Sansalone first began tinkering around with snowboard filmmaking almost eight years ago, when he was laid up with an injury. The hobby quickly turned into a career.

“It was like a hobby before, and then… it organically grew into something that was being sold all over the world and getting a lot of attention,” Sansalone explained.

So about five years ago, Sansalone and a good friend and colleague, Clayton Larsen, formed Sandbox, a talented team of young designers, filmmakers and riders that has produced popular riding flicks like Flavour Country and Time Well Wasted. Since its inception, Sandbox has grown significantly, both in terms of athletic and production abilities.

“A lot of the riders we’ve had since the beginning of Sandbox, so we saw them grow from sort of no-name rookie guys into, now they’re popular and they’re all over the magazines,” he said. “Some guys have even outgrown us and they’re onto bigger and better things.”

Now, they’ve released their fourth full-length film, All Day Every Day, which features scenic vistas and shots from right here in our own backyard, at Whistler-Blackcomb, in Whistler’s backcountry, the Rockies, and as far away as Norway, Sweden, Austria and Spain.

“One of our best shoots this year was our Whistler-Blackcomb helicopter shoot,” he added. “… They built us a great, really big jump and the stars all aligned. Everything was perfect: the sun was out, the clouds cleared, and we had an amazing sunset and the riders did some unbelievable tricks.”

The film features a heavy-hitting roster of riders, including Andrew Hardingham, Andrew Geeves, Rube Goldberg, Ryan Hall, Brendan Keenan, Rusty Ockenden, Max Ritchie, Steve Cartwright, Dwayne Wiebe, Nash Lajeunesse, Geoff Brown, Mikey Pederson, Logan Short, Etienne Gilbert and a newcomer from Australia, Ryan Tiene.

Sandbox has already toured Canada, the U.S., and parts of Europe and Australia with this latest film, and they just held the Vancouver premiere last weekend, an event that drew an impressive crowd of almost 900 people. Now, they’re finally bringing the film home to their own backyard to premiere it to Whistler’s loyal crowd of snow worshippers.

The audience at the upcoming Whistler premiere, which includes a pre-party with three on-site bars, music by DJ Vinyl Ritchie, and a charity photo auction for Zero Ceiling, can expect to see a few impressive new riders and sponsors on the roster, along with unbelievably crisp imagery, thanks to the crew’s new HD equipment.

The riders and production team are predominantly based in Whistler, so maintaining a loyal local following is very important to Sansalone and the rest of the team, who are hoping to capture the hype and energy of the upcoming season here in Whistler.

“Everyone’s saying it’s kind of weird that we’re ‘bringing it home’ — it’s the last one of the tour,” Sansalone explained. “Usually you do the world premiere at home, and usually, we have, but I thought this year… we’d change it up a little and do a really big premiere really close to snow season.”