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What kids say about Whistler

New documentary crayons out kids growing up in Whistler for Celebration 2010
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Drawing Whistler Conclusions Spring Creek Elementary School students created artwork to illustrate what they love about Whistler in the upcoming film, Community Now: Made in Whistler screening as part of Celebration 2010. Photo by Nicole Fitzgerald

What: Community Now: Made in Whistler screening

When: Thursday, Feb. 21, 7 p.m.

Where: MY Millennium Place

Admission: Free

A new documentary gets into the minds of kids growing up in Whistler.

Community Now: Made in Whistler cozies up with nine outstanding Whistler devotees from age nine to 19 along with 28 students from Kim Galloway’s Grade 4/5 class at Spring Creek elementary school to tell a coming of age tale only children could.

Stories are honest, funny and heartfelt without that adult third-eye always editing their thoughts and sentences.

This is Whistler kids uncut.

As producer, director and crew sandwich maker, I got to look at these stories right in the eye – children never flinch from telling you what is in their hearts. They wouldn’t know how to cover their sparkle, even if they tried. And thanks to the wily camera work of Frederick Oke and editing excellence of Jacob Gish, we got every last twinkle.

A film presented by the Whistler Museum in partnership with the VANOC 2008 Cultural Olympiad, the focus of this 30-minute documentary was on relaying the history of Whistler. Made in Whistler is one of a four-part film series called Community Now. Each year, the film explores Whistler’s history by interviewing a different age demographic. Completed films have sat down with seniors, adults, young adults and now children – which means crayons and snow boots and skier cross starting gates and pointe shoes tied on with pink ribbons.

From the ivory tickling of EMI recording artist Ali Milner, 17, to the double axels of Olympic hopeful Lisa Nakajima, 12, Whistler’s many sides, both creative and athletic, plays out in each child’s story.

The film skis out with lifers although kids may not be technically born in Whistler – the closest a planned birth can come is a 45-minute drive away to Squamish.

“I think my first time on the mountain was when I was a year old,” said 15-year-old Max Horner who was born and raised in Whistler. “My mom took me up in a back pack and then after that, I was around three years old when I skied. She kept me on a leash.”

Literally.

Max not even old enough to go to elementary school was already bombing around the mountain, with his mom a professional ski patroller, Kathy Jewett, trying to hold the now Whistler Mountain Ski Club podium finisher back unsuccessfully on a ski leash.

Parents have also transplanted kids to this neck of the woods for only a short stay, a kind of return to Eden where limitless opportunities take shots at them.

Thirteen-year-old Jake Taber walled up in the concrete living of the city never got to imagine let alone exercise a passion for sports until Whistler. For the first time, the now goalie of a youth Whistler hockey team plays hockey, golf, skis and hikes. He hopes his father, Four Seasons general manager Scott Taber, won’t be transferred before the Games.

“The Games are going to be fantastic,” Jake said. “There is going to be the thing of no school.”

Only kids would see the Games as an extra holiday from chalkboards and books. However, Ms. Galloway’s class was only too enthusiastic to draw out what they loved best in Whistler as part of an art project that weaves in and out of the nine-featured youth.

What they drew was almost as interesting as what they didn’t draw.

“My dad isn’t in the picture because he’s from Winnipeg and he doesn’t ski,” Nicole Daily explained of her “family” picture of a ski day with her mom and sister.

Who knew what province you came from would affect your ability to stand on two planks?

Humour aside, audiences will be surprised the depth of kids’ understanding and appreciation for where they live and what they deem important. I know I was.

For me, it was important to embrace all of Whistler’s history – history that dates back thousands of years when the Lil’wat and Squamish Nations dwelt together at the base of Garibaldi Mountain in a community called Spo7ez. Audiences will ride with cousins Logan and Kamana Bikadi of the Lil’wat Nation through their historic territory. The stories of these First Nations Snowboard Team members will both charm and enlighten.

Come sit among these incredible youth and discover the future Whistler can look forward to. Applaud what this town has made of them and in turn, what they have made of it.

Made in Whistler screens on Thursday, Feb. 21 at 7:30 p.m. at MY Millennium Place. The screening also includes a student art exhibit at 7 p.m. as well as a film reception at 8 p.m. with live music from Ali Milner and nibblies to socialize over.

Admission is free.