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In the now and here

What: Now/Here film screening When: Friday, Sept. 10, 6:30 p.m. & 8:30 p.m.

What: Now/Here film screening

When: Friday, Sept. 10, 6:30 p.m. & 8:30 p.m.

Where: MY Millennium Place

Cost: $11 at the Circle, Evolution and Showcase

It's hard to pack your swimsuit away for the season, but do you know what makes the transition into fall just a little bit easier? When a new snowboard film drops.

Yep, it's that time of year again! The homegrown Dendrite Films released their debut ski film, Out of the Shadows, during Crankworx, and now, Absinthe Films is rolling into town and keeping the momentum going with a screening of Now/Here later this week.

Justin Hostynek, director for Absinthe Films, was raised in the mountains of Switzerland, where he started skiing as soon as he could walk.

"I grew up skiing there; we had a ski lift right out our back door, so I've been skiing since I was two," he said.

So, it's not overly shocking that when snowboarding emerged on the scene, he was intrigued.

"I just fell in love with it and knew that I wanted to be somehow involved with this sport, long term."

Soon, he started shooting photos and came out with a calendar, then spent about 15 years working for Snowboarder magazine before going on to work as a team manager for a clothing company called Twist. Eventually he started working on a team video for Twist, and soon, he was hooked on filmmaking. For the past 17 years or so, he's been making some of the industry's most highly anticipated snowboard films (Transcendence and Neverland, just to name a few). He recently became a Canadian citizen and has set down roots in Nelson, though he spends plenty of time on the road during the winter season shooting for the next season's big flicks.

So, after almost two decades of making snowboard flicks, how does he keep things fresh, not only for viewers, but for himself?

"Well, I think the key is to keep it fun and make a point of spending time with good riders, of course, but good riders that are intent on making their existence fun and not just racking up dollars and buying houses and stuff," he said. "I've been really lucky to find a crew who is not really all about money, and we have fun when we're out there, and I think the fun translates to the film. There's not like a list of tricks that they have to get; it's just like, 'okay, let's go out and snowboard and I'll film you guys, and then we turn that into a film!'"

That off-the-cuff, unscripted approach seems to be working for Absinthe.

"You just don't get very far if you try to plan things out too far in this world," Hostynek said. "In the snowboard world, I've found, you just have to freestyle it and document what is happening, whatever it may be."

That laidback attitude is reflected in spades with the underlying theme of their latest film, Now/Here. So, wait a minute - is it nowhere, or now, here?

"It depends on the audience and what they bring to it, how they want to pronounce it," Hostynek mused.

"It's a subtle one," he added. "Our themes are not really knocking you over the head, but it gives you something to think about, and I think it's best not to over explain it... a lot of it is about the lyrics in the music and the pacing, the messages that are in there."

Let's see what you make of the description on their website:

"Movement can give the illusion of progress. And they say that all the world is illusion. So what is the difference between exploring and being lost? In a winter that brought an exceptional amount of challenges to riders all over the world, Absinthe's newest snowboard film reminds us how much our reality is affected by what we make of it. Whether you are lost... or exactly where you want to be... all depends on how you look at it."

Are we intrigued yet? Read on.

This time around, their roster features Dan Brisse, Gigi Rüf, Fredi Kalbermatten, Sylvain Bourbousson, Romain deMarchi, DCP, JP Solberg, Tadashi Fuse, Annie Boulanger, Marie-France Roy, Bjorn Leines, Jules Reymond, Cale Zima, Taka Nakai, Terje Haakonsen, Bode Merrill, Blair Habenicht, Wolfgang Nyvelt and Nicolas Müller, as well as two relative newcomers, Lucas Debari and Jake Blauvelt. They traveled to ride and shoot in the Interior of B.C., Alaska, throughout Europe and Eastern Russia and Japan.

"I think it's one of our best. I think the soundtrack might be the best," Hostynek said.

For Hostynek and the Absinthe crew, music is a crucial component of each and every film. They start the filmmaking process by canvassing the riders, crew and a team of "music advisors" to select songs, then they hang the imagery and film segments off of each. And sometimes, despite their best efforts, it just doesn't work.

In fact, they put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this latest project.

"We had an exceptionally challenging winter. We had a lot of injuries, really heavy injuries," Hostynek explained. "... So we had those heavy setbacks along with really challenging weather.

"The weather part of it really made a lot of the riders want to keep moving on - 'oh, the grass must be greener over there.' And so that was just an underlying theme," he laughed. "And I feel like we ended up with an amazing film, but it took a lot of doing and a lot of lessons were learned along the way."

They debuted Now/Here to crowds in Park City, Utah at the end of August, and so far the film has been met with a warm reception from fans. Next up, they're heading to Whistler, with featured riders Nicolas Muller, Annie Boulanger, and Romain de Marchi in tow to sign autographs and talk about the project and the upcoming season.