194.) Summit Sessions #70: The 46'ers Film with Director Blake Cortright

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is the forty six of forty six podcast Summit Session,
where we'll talk all things Adirondack back country and beyond,
from high Peaks stories and adventures to trail tips and tricks.
We'll dive deep into the heart of these mountains and
the people who passionately climb them. Adirondack maps and spruce
traps to bushwackx and backpacks. It's all here the forty

(00:22):
six of forty six Summit Sessions. Hello, and welcome back
to the forty six of forty six podcast. This week,

(00:44):
I am back with an exciting summit session where we
are going to merge two entirely different aspects of my life,
the Adirondacks and filmmaking. Ten years ago, director Blake Courtwright
released the forty six Ers film, feature length documentary film
about how the forty six high Peaks transform people inside

(01:06):
and out. I've seen it. It is a fantastic movie.
And this summer kicks off the tenth anniversary screening series
for the film, so it's coming back to theaters and
what a great year to do it. Blake is with
me today to talk all about the film, from the
filmmaking process and the High peaks, the challenges like carrying

(01:27):
a camera crane up to the top of Cascade, and
the tenth anniversary re release and much more. He's live
with me here at shed Quarters, Blake. Welcome to the
forty six to forty six Podcast. Hey James, thanks for
having me. It's fun to be to be in shed
Quarters in the flesh.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Yes, you certainly are here.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
We are in my little nook, my little slice of
heaven here in the oudur Own Neck Park.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Welcome.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
We love it. Thanks very tell you.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
It's the first time there's been not just cameras but
lights here set up in shed Quarters, so it's exciting stuff.
We're doing it big for Blake. This is the ten
year rerelease of the forty six ers. So what's that
been like for you?

Speaker 3 (02:02):
Man?

Speaker 2 (02:02):
It's been fun.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
I realized it was coming up last year, which was
kind of crazy to think that ten years of my
life have passed since I completed and released this thing
that took three years of my life to make right
and last summer we actually did a limited screening at
one of our theaters in Rome, New York because it
was their tenth anniversary and we were their third top

(02:24):
selling film of all time, and then after they showed
it for that limited run again, we were their second
top selling film of all time, so that felt pretty
satisfying and I was like, all right, there's a this
could work. I think we could bring it back to
theaters because people have streamed it, we've sold DVDs in
Blu rays. But as I'm sure you're well aware, in
the last ten years the number forty six ers is doubled. Yeah,

(02:45):
so the audience is there, and I think people are
looking for that communal.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Experience of going to the theater.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
I don't know about you, but like I like streaming,
I like watching stuff on my couch, but there's really
something special and unique about not just the bigness of
the screen and the sound, but experiencing the emotions and
the journey in a room full of strangers and everybody
kind of laughs or gasps at the same time, or
you ride this emotional rollercoaster together.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
To me, that's what I love one of the things
I love about filmmaking.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yeah, you don't get into filmmaking if like the going
to the movie theater is in a massive part of
your life. Like, that's really what attracts people to that world.
You know, you and I both work in the film industry,
like we know this. This is why this is exciting
to talk not just like logistics of how you made
this film, but also like the subject matter. So it
just makes sense to do a podcast about this and

(03:38):
I'm excited to talk about both aspects of this process.
So first off, kudos to you for not only like
putting yourself out there tackling a story like the forty
six ers and actually seeing something through start to finish.
I know, you know, I've worked in the film industry
for eighteen years. It is a long process to do

(03:59):
something and for you to tackle something, especially you did
this film when you were a college student. You were
a film student, and to not just you know, do
your homework right like your projects for school. You actually
embarked on an actual film. You saw it through to
the end. You came up, you shot it, your fundraised you,
you did the film, you edited it, you had it
distribute like you DoD. Kudos again to you, like what

(04:22):
a people don't really understand a what it's like to
put yourself out there in terms of like making content
for people, but to actually do something that no one's
making you do, and you just want to see it through.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
You want to tell a story. I mean, this whole.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
Podcast literally exists because I wanted to tell a story.
And it's crazy where it goes. So, you know, nothing
but respect for you for putting this out there. And
I've seen the film and you did a fantastic job.
So let's you know, let's kind of like start at
the beginning here. What was your inspiration? So you're a
college student. You were going to college in Virginia. I
know you're from like the Albany area, so obviously you're

(04:54):
familiar with the Adirondacks, but to have this idea well
being in college but then actually say no, let's do it,
like talk take to me about let's get to the origin,
like what led to you saying this is a story
I want to tell.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
So I started in two thousand and eight when I
was still in Boy Scouts.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
I was still in high school or middle scot I
did even remember what I was at that point.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
But we went and hiked Giant Mountain for our hiking
Merit badge.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
But we had to make it a ten mile hike,
so we did.

Speaker 3 (05:24):
The loop where you start across from Chapel Pond and
then you come around the backside of Giant and I
remember it just it just leveled us. We were like
and I was young and sprightly. The adults in the
room were definitely hurting by the time.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
We got out.

Speaker 3 (05:39):
We got out at like ten o'clock at night, went
to I don't even remember which restaurant in King Valley.
It was one of the only ones that was opened
that late on like a Saturday night, And I remember
the impression that left on me though, because to that
point my only Atrontic experience had been summer's up on
the YMCA camp in Lake George Silver Bay, which was gorgeous, awesome,
But those hikes are nothing like the Highpee.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
Sure.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
So then summer of twenty twelve, my father, my brother
and I decided we were going to go hike Marcie
Tabletop and Phelps one day and camp out out by
Marci Dam at a lean to, and then the next
day we were going to hike Algonquin Airquoin.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
Right. Well, we got humbled.

Speaker 3 (06:19):
We went out and did we did get Marcy and
we got Tabletop and I remember looking through the tree
and some of it at Tabletop like oh, okay, this
is fine. And then the next day we were trying
to do Algonquin Airquois right, and subsequently I realized the
only way to do that, well maybe not, but the
way the works for me is to do right on
the way back.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
We didn't do that. We did right first, and we
just looked up at Algonquin.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
I'm sure I'm many many a person who has stood
there with the intent to hit those three and you're
tired on the summit to right, looking up at this
giant looming over and you you're.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
Like, yeah, that's not today. So sure we turned back.

Speaker 3 (06:51):
But through that experience that was after my freshman year
I was.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
Going to go back to college. I was captivated by
a couple of things.

Speaker 3 (06:59):
One just how physically demanding it actually was, especially at
that age. You know, you're eighteen years old, you think
you can conquer the world. Yeah, you think you're invincible,
and sure to realize very quickly that you're not. I
think it's a very important lesson. And I got a big,
big spoonful of humble pie.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
And then and then we know there's good for that, right,
We're giving you that humble eye.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
Serve it up every day just kept coming for three years, man,
and it was good.

Speaker 3 (07:23):
But then we when I was on Marcie, I got
one little corner to myself and it's the cyber you're
looking at and you can see haystack on your left,
skylight on your right, and just that open wilderness. You
don't see any roads, you don't see any human structures
from that particular advantage point, and that just captivated my imagination.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
From the time I've been like five.

Speaker 3 (07:42):
Or six years old, I've had this visual style that's
impacted by the historical epics of the fifties and sixties.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
So I love big, sweeping landscapes.

Speaker 3 (07:52):
I love the Lord of the Rings movies. So to me,
I was like, oh, this is I'm like in Middle
Earth right now, and I wanted to capture that feeling
so that the impetus and then it got into yeah,
the views are beautiful, but like Tabletop was kind of
grueling for not much reward, and I know that's hardly
the only forested summit, So I was like, why do
people do this?

Speaker 2 (08:13):
Like what keeps you going through forty six of these things?

Speaker 3 (08:15):
Especially people that have had injuries, especially people that have
dealt with really inclined weather or you know, maybe safety
scares with hypothermia or frostbite or something else, and I was.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
Like, why do people do this?

Speaker 3 (08:26):
So that that kept mulling in my brain as I
went back to college, and then at my fall break,
I met with my mentor from who had been at
the PBS station in Albany and now was in Plattsburgh
kind of managing the programming, and I pitched him on
this idea and he said, all right, yeah if you basically,
if you do it, we'll air it.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
No so and you know, because he'll supervise.

Speaker 3 (08:45):
And make sure that I that I like hit the
things I need to hit sure to be So you
hitched him this idea for a film and he said, yeah,
well we'll air it if you shoot it. Yeah, okay,
So I had I knew I had at least one
spot for it to live, and then I put together
the kickstarter. But it was funny I mentioned doing this
my parents and they were like, well, Blake, you have
no money, you don't have any film equipment, and you

(09:05):
have no job, and you're a full time student in
Virginia and you got to keep your grades up to
keep your scholarship because you can't afford to go to college.
And fortunately I was able to do it without debt.
But I said, no, I'm going to do a kickstarter.
And you know, having been as you mentioned, in the
content world early on, that was amazing because because MFA
students and senior portfolios like people couldn't even.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
Raise two or three grand to get their student films done.

Speaker 3 (09:31):
So everybody kind of scoffed at me when I came
out there and I said, I'm going to raise twelve,
two hundred and fifty dollars in thirty five days. However,
I was strategic. I knew what I was doing because
I knew there was a passionate audience and then I
could connect to those people.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
I knew I could pull it off. I wasn't just.

Speaker 3 (09:48):
Telling my introspective thoughts on reality as an eighteen year old.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
You know, it wasn't your film noir, you know, student film,
the crappy student film that college students were making. It
was actually a film that there was an audience and
people wanted.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
You know, it wasn't like the you know I went.
I didn't go to college for film. I went for
television production.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
But like many friends that were in the film program,
and it's like every film student wants to be Quentin Tarantino,
and it's like, sorry, no one cares about your film.
No one cares about your idea of trying to be
Quentin Tarantin.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
You'll rip off.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
But your film, you were smart because you knew that
there was a story beyond anything else, yes, that needed
to be told, and an audience that will want to
see that story. We want to hear it. So again,
you were thinking far beyond your years. So much respect
for that. I've been blessed with many great mentors over

(10:42):
the years. I credit all of that maturity.

Speaker 3 (10:44):
Any any maturity beyond my years has always been just
the benefit of people who are five, ten, twenty thirty
years ahead of me in my career, who were giving
me advice and helping steer away from my eight year
old impulses. Which was great because then this this film,
like I really grew up making it, because from eighteen
to twenty one, I spent most of my time that

(11:07):
I wasn't in class or like in my extracurriculars or
my part time jobs at that point later on, like
working on.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
This thing, doing it.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah, doing the thing that you're in college to do.
You're doing it like that's the thing, you're actually out
doing it, which you know, again it is like having
someone who's been in that world. To some people wait
to do it, it's like no, you could literally make
your movie right now.

Speaker 2 (11:30):
Awesome stuff.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
So having that sort of mentor, I'm assuming he probably
helped you. You know, you said he helped you check
the check some boxes and stuff like, he kind of
helped guide like how the story needs to go so
it would go on PBS ultimately.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yeah, So he gave me.

Speaker 3 (11:46):
Some just some structural pointers, and then when it came
to the edit, he was really helpful. We actually sat
down a couple weeks ago and talked about this, and
I said, the thing he told me that really stuck
with me was the phrase kill your darlings when it
comes to you because directors, sure you've seen this, directors
get in love with a shot or story beat and
it doesn't serve the.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
Story when you get in the edit and you need
that executive producer.

Speaker 3 (12:08):
And in this case, he was more that he was
actually acting as a regular producer, not just the bank,
and you need that person to come in and say
this isn't serving the story.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:17):
Yeah, that's why directors have producers, because you get so
you need that outside, like non emotionally connected person, especially
in anything creative.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
So it's good to have that have that.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
So now, I know we probably should have started with this,
but you know, we're just this podcast. It's the Wild West, dude.
I love it for people who aren't familiar with your film.
Give us a little background of you know, what's the
log line, Give us a little introduction as to what
the film is if you haven't seen it.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yeah, so it's a sixty five minute I call it
a documentary epic. Because I shot it.

Speaker 3 (12:49):
I really didn't reference a lot of contemporary documentary, and
I think when you watch it, people will feel that
it doesn't flow. It definitely doesn't feel like Netflix. It
feels a little more classical and its approach. My visual
references were Lawrence of Arabia, Lord of the Rings. I
wasn't doing a lot of like, oh, I'm going to
try to learn from these other documentaries and that, you know,
in some ways that was a strength. In other ways

(13:10):
it was a challenge. But the story is it's a
love letter to the Adirondacks. Like, even if you're not
a forty six er, you don't care about hiking, I
think you'll love the film. If you are a forty
six er or aspiring or you love hiking, I think
you'll really love the film because it ties to the
experience of the people who do it. Ultimately, it seeks
to answer what transforms ordinary men and women into the

(13:33):
legendary forty six ers, And it does so in this
way that I think, at least suppose my intention to
respect the mountains, to respect the forty six Ers organization
and the other organizations that support the conservation of our
resources here and safe and responsible trail management, and also
you know, safety for the people that are out there,
because the mountains, as you've talked about and we've talked about,

(13:55):
the mountains don't care about you. And if you break
your leg out there, the mountains aren't going to help
you out. They can transform your I think, be really transformative.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
For your mind and your and your spirit and obviously
physically too.

Speaker 3 (14:07):
But yeah, if you get hurt out there, they're not
They're not in company to your rescue.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
Hey, everyone, I hope you're enjoying this episode.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
I just wanted to take a second to let you
know the June Great Range Athlete team is officially sold
out now. Because of that, I have decided to launch
an additional summer Great Range Athlete team because I got
to get you guys strong and fit so you can
have enjoyable mountain adventures this summer. So the next Great
Range Athlete team will kick off in July. Yes, the

(14:36):
June team is sold out now, launching the July team.

Speaker 2 (14:40):
Head over to Great Range aathlete dot com.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
If you want to spend six weeks this summer online
getting fit, strong and in shape so you can enjoy
your mountain adventures and do it with like minded people
in the process. Reserve your spot today at Great Rangethathlete
dot com and I'll see you in July. Having gone
through this process that it took you three years to

(15:03):
the film was a three year process for you from
like shooting it to editing it. I would imagine that
not only from a like, you must have learned more
about creating a film on that three year process than
you did.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
In film school.

Speaker 1 (15:17):
Yeah, it's what most people do, will do if you
actually go do, but you must have gone on a
transformative journey yourself during that time because of the mountains,
not in the mountains, but because of them. And I remember,
I remember, I don't know if it was a if
it's in the film. Is it in the film where
you talk about changing the title of the name or

(15:38):
did I see it in like an interview with you?

Speaker 2 (15:40):
Yeah, it's probably an interview.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
So you were originally calling it Conquering the forty six.
And I remember reading or I guess reading an interview
with you and you said, as you were doing the film,
you realize, like that's not what people do and do that.
That spoke to me so much when I read that

(16:03):
that you realized while making the film that it's a
different perspective, And I thought that was so awesome, because yeah,
you do not cong that everything. In fact, whenever you
see the word conquer and having anything to do with
the outdoors, it's in a you know, you see from brands,
you see from companies. It's an immediate turnof for me personally,

(16:23):
because that's like and that's where like part of the
mountains don't care about you is like part of where
it's kind of like the going against that thought process
that you conquer anything out there.

Speaker 2 (16:33):
So what was the what was kind of the moment
or like, what kind of led you.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
To that, because changing the title of the film enormous change, right,
so it kind of take me through that journey.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
Sure.

Speaker 3 (16:44):
Yeah, So the short version was my executive producer because
it was going on PBS. He's like, PBS things always
need a subtitle, and I don't know if it was
him or me, somehow we came up with this subtitle
and then it worked its way to the promo material.
And I remember even from when we launched and started
promoting it on social media and having a few other
larger atirontick pages, you know, giving them some marketing money

(17:06):
to push.

Speaker 2 (17:07):
It out there for us. Back in the day, there
were a lot of hiking forms.

Speaker 3 (17:10):
I don't know if that's all shifted to Reddit or
if it's still in those original web forums, but I
remember just getting as an eighteen.

Speaker 2 (17:16):
Year old kid, just getting like lit up on these forums.

Speaker 3 (17:19):
Sure, And it was my first experience of like, don't
ever read the comments because people were like, what this
kid thinks? Who's he think he is? He's going to
conquer the Adirondacks. You know, why is he qualified to
tell this story? You know, he's his name is Blake.
That's the worst of the High Peaks. I don't even
like that name. This guy's loser, like all this stuff
right and so petty. It was so good, it was so.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
Good, like now, in hindsight, so funny.

Speaker 3 (17:40):
But at eighteen, I was like, asly, you go, yeah,
of course, it's your first time, like you're putting yourself
out there, and it's your first time you get something ya,
and it's like, oh no, he makes you a question everything.
And obviously it's not even that like nothing compared to
what some people experienced, but just initial shock of like whoah,
oh sure. But then as I started to interview people,
I found nobody talked like that, Like nobody used any

(18:01):
kind of language around conquering or domineering or like taking over.
And so very quickly we decided to drop the subtitle
because it just didn't fit. And I actually went against
the PBS grain because I just released the film as
the forty six Ers.

Speaker 2 (18:15):
There is no subtitle. It is punk rock. I like it.
I like to be, you know.

Speaker 3 (18:19):
I think the closest example was at the time Ken
Burns National Parks Series was out, and I referenced that
in terms of my interview setup, but in terms of
the way I shot everything else, not really. And our
shooting style was also limited by the gear we had,
which you don't have to get two technical on. But
for the film nerds out there, it was, you know,
drones weren't really viable, and I'm grateful for that because
the now the drone regulations sure so retrospectively that saved me.

(18:44):
Gimbals were cumbersome and expensive, and motion control sliders were
very expensive, Like everything was expensive and bulky by today's
standards anyway, And so we had a camera, a cheap
camera craan. We had one cinema grade camera that could
do the broad cast quality in HD, and we had

(19:05):
a cheap tripod and a couple go pros and like
that was it. So we made the film using those
tools and those limits. I think force a certain visual style,
but I like the language that it does, because I
don't see a lot of crane shots necessarily in documentary,
especially lately.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
Everything's on a gimbal nowadays. Or motion sliders were really in.

Speaker 3 (19:24):
At the time, but I just couldn't afford it because
the camp starter covered like the camera gear and the
essentials we needed to record and that was it, sure,
and it was volunteer time.

Speaker 2 (19:33):
So yeah, that was that was how all that came.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
You did what you could do with the tools that
you had, exactly made it work. Because again, it's not
it's not about it's like if you watch it, if
you watch a show and it's like visually like not
that great, but the story is so good. Nobody cares
like it's about the story ultimately, and you were here
to tell a story unfortunately, like even a bad camera
is going to look really nice out showcasing the high peaks.

(19:58):
So talk to me a little bit about the challenges
that you I dealt with. I know you talked about
bringing the crane up to Cascade. Yeah, like making a
movie and bringing hauling camera gear anywhere in Pelican cases
is hard enough, let alone climbing mountain. So so talked
to us about the actual production process in the mountains,
not interviews, but like footage stuff.

Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yeah. Well, I mean I realized very quickly because when
I was sitting on Marci as a plucky eighteen year
old looking out of this view being like I'm in
Middle Earth?

Speaker 2 (20:26):
Why don't they shoot a feature film here?

Speaker 3 (20:28):
And then as soon as we started shooting, I realized, Oh,
but it was one of those things, you know, I
tell people like, I think I was too young and
ignorant to know that you don't make a feature, You
don't make it a nationally broadcast theater ready feature documentary
when you're in college, especially in undergrad and you definitely

(20:49):
don't make a feature documentary about the Adirontic high peaks
because there have been ateronic films in the past, but
I never felt like they captured the full sphere of
the experience, and they didn't have the cinematic type that
I wanted.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
So I'm like, I'll do it now.

Speaker 3 (21:02):
I realized, Oh, there's good reason that people don't do
either of these things, and I'm.

Speaker 2 (21:05):
Doing both of them.

Speaker 3 (21:06):
You learned quickly, Yeah, and like you said, the humble
Pie from the Mountains just kept giving because at the time,
our tripods were pretty heavy, so that's a bunch of
weight on your back on top of especially we started
in March, so we were wintertime in Cascade and Porter,
and we've got the camera in a backpack, lenses, batteries,
a tripod, and and that was like the light version

(21:30):
of what we were traveling with. Then on those days
you mentioned, like Cascade in the summer, we strapped I
had a camera crane, like awkwardly.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
Strapped to my back for that entire hike.

Speaker 3 (21:39):
And then my dad was the poor soul that took
on the literal dead weight, just plate weights that we
had to use from the counterweight, which is again is
like the exact opposite of what you want to do
when you're hiking.

Speaker 2 (21:51):
Yeah, you know, obviously in your in your fitness program.

Speaker 3 (21:53):
I'm sure if we'd had that at the time, we
could have been we could have been a little more
prepared for it, but we weren't thinking like that, and
so we just got we got slammed with that. And
then the other challenges too, is like the weather, so
as much as the weather conditions are difficult, as much
as the weather conditions are difficult when you were just
hiking and dealing with it, having to deal with camera
equipment that's sensitive to moisture and temperature changes, like your

(22:16):
batteries don't last as long when it's twenty to below
or whatever. All of those factors made it more complicated.
And then the other factor of like in order to
get shots, I'd have to get really far ahead of
a group of hikers, take ten or fifteen minutes to
set up, then have them come through and film, let
them pass by, and then pack up and then catch
up to them, and so there was a lot of that.
We shot in rain, we shot in mud, We shot

(22:38):
with black flies, We shot in snow and whipping winds.
We shot on blistering eighty degree days. We shot on
freezing negative twenty degree days. We waited around for after sunset,
so we'd wait till the sun was way down, like
nautical twilight, and hike out in the dark. We'd hike
in in the dark at three in the morning so

(22:59):
we could get sunrise is and just a lot of
it was like hurry up and wait, which is true
of everything in film production, but again it's kind of
exacerbated when you're standing, especially if your clothes get wet
and you're just like, all right, we're gonna.

Speaker 2 (23:12):
Just rough this out and not get hypothermia.

Speaker 3 (23:14):
But we did get I mean, there were no serious
injuries on the production except for I dislocated.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
My knee three times, so that was kind of miserable.

Speaker 3 (23:24):
I mean, to say that is not serious, well, I mean,
nobody had to be on crutches, like nobody had a laceration,
nobody had a heat stroke, everybody got frostbite or hypothermia.
Those are what I would consider really notiously if I
was able to limp my way out, and each of
those times it.

Speaker 2 (23:40):
Was just like just grueling, like I uh.

Speaker 3 (23:44):
And so because of that, I still haven't finished my
forty six I'm stuck at eighteen or nineteen. It's going
to be that lifelong journey of building back the strength
to do them sequentially.

Speaker 2 (23:54):
But it was never my story, and that's what I was.

Speaker 3 (23:56):
You know, people will kind of scoff a little bit
that this kid has never hyped off all of them
is telling the story about said, well, it's not my story,
you know. It's the story of the forty six ers,
the organization, the people that hike in the mountains themselves,
and it's not about me, which was very freeing in
many way.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
Yeah, I dude, it's funny you say that.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
So I when I remember hearing that you had not
climbed the forty six high pieces, I remember saying at
that time, like, how dare he? Who is this kid
who made this film the audacity?

Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yeah, dude, And it's funny I think a lot of
people probably have that.

Speaker 1 (24:26):
At first, and then I actually ended up putting on
that was just like my we'll call that my like
my hiker cap. And then I put on my filmmaking cap,
and I said, yeah, because filmmakers don't tell their story, right, Like,
so I've had that kind of that kind of insight
in my own brain. You tell other people's stories. If
you tell your story, it's like weird and pretentious, like

(24:47):
I guess I did with my whole podcast, right, I
told my own.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
Story podcast or format.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
Yeah, yes, so my the first season of my podcast,
which is was only was going to be the podcast period.
There was not going to be ex episodes. It was
my version of making a film. It is making a film.
I made a podcast because I'm a sound guy. That's
just like what we do. But I, you know, for
the same reason you told your you told other people's

(25:14):
story because you wanted the story to come out. I
told my story because I wanted to put other people.
I wanted to be the person that they see themselves
in going up these mountains for the first time.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
Like I'm just some jokeshmo. The story just happens to
be about me.

Speaker 1 (25:31):
Because it's the only story I know I can tell
in you know, high detail, because it was my story.
But I want you to listen as you're driving up
eighty seven to go hike giant Rocky beek Ridge. I
want you to put yourself in my shoes as you listen,
and picture yourself doing these things, seeing these people, because again,
you took the same approach that like there's some it's

(25:52):
about the mountains and this like intangible thing that comes
out of this journey. It's not about, hey, look at
what I did. It's about look at what you can
do and what these mountains do to people. And I
think it's your film captures that very well. And you
had some great people, great interviews with people throughout the film.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
So talk to us a.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
Little bit about like who you know, who did you
interview in the films, Like what were some great things
you learned throughout interviewing them?

Speaker 2 (26:16):
Let's hear about that.

Speaker 3 (26:17):
Yeah, So that and that was funny too because starting
out I didn't know the community because I was from Albany,
I had really only had limited exposure and so it
was a very organic process. As the circle expanded of
people that we got in touch with One of the
best contacts has now been a lifelong family friend of
ours is Dave and Terry, who owned T Max and

(26:39):
Topo's hostel, and they really helped plug us into the
community because they were like, well, wait a minute, this
is this is a good thing to tell this story,
but we want to you know, they helped support the film.
David ended up being interviewed in it, and they were like,
if we can help you connect to the right kinds
of people, because it's not about racing up the mountains,

(27:00):
not about checking off a list, and so from them
that expanded out. We got Ron Kanowitz, who was the
first to ski all the peaks and then has also been.

Speaker 2 (27:09):
A volunteer rescuer.

Speaker 3 (27:11):
I got invited to the forty six ers Skills weekend,
which is where I met Peter Fish and heard his
safety lecture as this forest ranger in his eighties, and
then his interview was really pivotal in the film for
just this contextual thing. I forgot exactly how we ended
up with Tony Goodwin, who's written many of the guidebooks
up here, and then his father obviously was so pivotal
in the guiding movement in the Adirondacks, so these pieces

(27:34):
started to layer in. We got Julia Goren, who at
the time was the head of the Summit Story program
for eighty k and all of these pieces just started
to fill in the story beyond just the personal transformation,
but also how that affects a community, and I think
that's what was really exciting about it. And then there
were some individuals that I met along the way who

(27:55):
were just regular people that didn't have necessar any special credentials,
but I thought it was important to share those experiences
as well. And there were also stories that we hoped
to capture and we filmed them and they looked great,
and it just didn't fit the story, so we didn't.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
They hit the cutting room floor, as it happens.

Speaker 3 (28:12):
And then I think this probably the most special interview
I got was with Helen Menz, who was one of
the original forty six ers who was hiking with Grace
Hudawewski and helping Grace with the program.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
Of numbering everybody's things and receiving the letters.

Speaker 3 (28:28):
And Helen was just such a such a treasure, and
I'm really really grateful that she got to see the
film at our Madison Theater screening in Albany before she
passed away, and then after that, after she passed away,
I updated the film to have a tribute to her
and in memory of her.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
So that's on all the all the versions of it
now that exist.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
And it was so special about that night too, was
we announced that she was there and she got a
standing ovation from the room, which was just so so
to have.

Speaker 2 (28:52):
These stories interwoven was great.

Speaker 3 (28:55):
One other little tidbit that helped, speaking of Grace Hidawelski,
was there's a filmmaker named Fred Schwibble who had done
a film about Grace before she passed and also incorporated
at Kevildge who was so pivotal in the summit restoration process,
and he had footage of them, and he allowed me
to use footage from his film. So I have these

(29:15):
two little snippets from Grace and Ed that just elevate
the whole story. And that's really was the story of
the film, was people helping out, this new filmmaker being
willing to support because the story was worth it, and
people bought into telling the story of the high peaks,
telling the story of the people that climb them, and really,
for me, the forty six high Peaks are a character

(29:36):
in the story, and when I worked with my composer,
I wanted the main theme not to be the theme
for the hikers, but for the mountains themselves.

Speaker 1 (29:44):
Hey man, baby, talk about speak in my language, speaking
to my soul. And that's the thing, dude. It's like
you just go into this thing and you're like, I'm
gonna go climb some mountains. I'm going to go walk
up this mountain's cool view, right, It'll be cool out there,
and then the mountains take over. You're not the same
person coming down the mountains as you were coming up.
And when you do a mountain after mountain after mountain,

(30:06):
and you see, like you go to all these places
that you've heard about or you've read about online. You know,
your first time going up Blake, or your first time
going through the floating logs, or you know, you finally
go across the Kooksa Kraga Bog and you have.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
All these moments of like right of passage.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
But also this is why people come out here, and
it's there's just mountains, dude. They're just mountains in the
in the woods, and there's something that is That's why
I say there's magic in them, and your story completely
resonates with mean, what you're talking about right now, how
it's just like it's about the mountains and you're just

(30:41):
telling the story.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
You know.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
For example, every every single person that comes on the
Summit sessions, the thing I say to them, I say,
I'm not the star of the show. You're not the
star of the show. At the Adirondack Park is the
star of the show. That's the goal of every episode.
Make the park the star of the show. And we
do that by just telling the story of the park,
celebrating the park, and your movie does does it super well.

(31:04):
So talk to me a little bit about, you know,
like the role that the hiking community played in the film,
you know, before, during, and after the release. Because this
is also the type of community where like, I mean,
how many Facebook groups exist with like twenty thousand members
into it, you know, like talk to about like how
the Aturonic hiking community You've touched on it a little
bit about like a little hate from the forums and stuff,

(31:26):
so they helped shape it a little bit. But like
in general, and even since the film has come out,
kind of how has the community been like a part
of this process for you.

Speaker 3 (31:33):
Yeah, well, as I mentioned going through even just the
process of how we found interviews was expanding the community
and being deeper into it, and then having these like
community pillars as part of the project helped validate what
we were doing because people realize, oh, okay, well, if
Tony's in it, if Julia is in it, if Pete
Fish is in it, it's okay.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
It's okay, and like and like this like how bad
can this can mess it up? I think was probably
the short like all right, how much can you mess
up if you have these street cred in a sense?

Speaker 3 (32:04):
Yeah, And I think then when I launched the first
official trailer for it, that got people really hype. So
that had the first peek at the musical score. I
was still using the aerial photography that was on loan
to me from Mount Lake PBS. I had didn't have
my own aerial photography until the end of twenty fourteen,
and then that made it into the final trailer, which
was really special.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
But the momentum built.

Speaker 3 (32:26):
We had like thirty thousand views on that trailer across
different platforms, sorry on each platform, so people were really
excited about it. They were sharing it, and it just
captured where the story was to that point. I think
that community involvement was great. I also did something you know,
I've since dropped off Instagram until the last month, which
if anyone's been paying attention, I started ramping it back

(32:48):
up again in anticipations ten year annivers or the algorithm
man and the screenings and some other exciting things coming up.

Speaker 2 (32:57):
But when I was launched it back then.

Speaker 3 (33:00):
The algorithm really rewarded like if you posted early and
if you used hashtags. So I was really aggressive with that,
and I had hashtag forty six er stock and I
would tell people like, hey, post hashtag forty six ers
stock on your Adirondack photos and I'll repost them, because
that was really big in twenty thirteen twenty fifteen, So
I did a lot of that, which also was like

(33:21):
people felt involved in the storytelling even though their photos
weren't ending up in the movie, but they were involved in.

Speaker 2 (33:26):
This project and this process.

Speaker 3 (33:29):
And then when we came to show the film in theaters,
we sold out theaters across the state, so Plattsburgh, Lake Placid,
Glenn's Falls, Albany, Syracuse, Rome, Rochester, even.

Speaker 2 (33:41):
Down in Brooklyn and a few other screenings.

Speaker 3 (33:44):
I remember how it felt to sit at the Plattsburgh
Strand Theater, one of those big, old grand theaters, with
six hundred people there, including at that time I just
started working for the Lake Placid Tourism Office Roost and
the CEO of RUS then Jim McKenna was there, so
I was like showing off the Adirondecks and doing my
intro spiel to this audience of six hundred people at
one time, which was just an amazing experience the way

(34:05):
people showed up. And then subsequently just seeing that people
still engage with the page. Like once we started reposting content,
people started engaging immediately and sharing their stories. And that
was really every time that I read a caption for.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
A post, it's all me doing it.

Speaker 3 (34:20):
Mostly I'm trying to engage the audience, so I'll ask
people to share their experiences to their stories, and it's
really fun to see all that continue to pour in.

Speaker 2 (34:29):
So I think that that's the big picture.

Speaker 3 (34:31):
And then, like I mentioned, when the second trailer came out,
people got really hyped about that because it was a
little bit longer, it had more character to it, it had
our aerial photography which was shot from a helicopter with
the doors off, and that was that was an interesting
experience as a college student had those shots. But one
of my friends commented it was a very very talented cinematographer.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
I showed them this one shot. It's coming around Marcy
at dawn and.

Speaker 3 (34:56):
The Great Range is starting to come in the background,
and it's all silhouetted, and you have this like spike
ball lens flare of the sun and the clouds are
swirling and you can see all the way out to
like Vermonts.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
It was just a crystal clear day. He goes, I
think that's the furthest I've ever seen in any student film.

Speaker 3 (35:13):
And then I was like, that's it, man, Like you,
I want people to feel, you know, I want to
tell the story.

Speaker 2 (35:19):
I want to capture it and be truthful.

Speaker 3 (35:21):
I want to represent the conservation efforts, the safety needs,
and the respect that you need to have for the mountains.

Speaker 2 (35:26):
But I also want people to feel the sense of awe.

Speaker 3 (35:28):
And wonder and to feel the magic of the mountains
in the movie, whether they'd never felt it before, to
get them excited, or whether they're reminiscing about their own
atrontic experiences.

Speaker 2 (35:39):
Even if they weren't in the high peaks.

Speaker 3 (35:40):
I wanted people to feel that, and I got that
feedback from people in the theaters, which was very encouraging.

Speaker 1 (35:45):
Amazing, dude, six hundred people in one theater to see
something that you decided to tackle as just like some
punk film student kid who wanted to make a story
to see like, oh, there's actually people who care.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
These are all strangers. I don't know them.

Speaker 1 (35:59):
Yeah, they connected to the mountains, but we have a
connection now because I'm connected to them, you're connected to them.

Speaker 2 (36:05):
Let's go celebrate the mountains.

Speaker 1 (36:07):
What do you think, like if you had to a tribute,
you know, one aspect, like what was the like the
one thing that you feel was the biggest thing that
resonated with people that had you selling out theaters, Like
if you had to contribute this to kind of like
one or two things like why did why did the
audience resonate well with this unknown filmmaker telling a story
about something that people might know about but might not

(36:31):
know about that they, you know, selling out theaters across
the state Like that's a big deal.

Speaker 2 (36:34):
Yeah. I think the hype building up to it helped.
So with kickstart between Kickstart.

Speaker 3 (36:40):
And Indigogo, we had about five hundred backers. We'd built
up and obviousoom page to about six thousand people, about
twelve hundred on Instagram, And so that helped because there
was a built in hunger for it and people were
waiting because I would keep posting updates, I'd keep posting
still photos behind the scenes, and people just were like,
hungry for the thing.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
Are ready?

Speaker 3 (36:59):
So the two years of anticipation or two and a
half years, how are we in a marketing?

Speaker 2 (37:03):
Good work? Thank you? Yeah, that helped a lot.

Speaker 3 (37:05):
And then the I think once people came like why
they came back to see it, why there was such
positive word of mouth? Was that capturing of the magic
of being in the mountains. I think because of my style,
my tone of voice, the way that I let shots breathe.
I really, I mean, now I work in commercial world
and I'm cutting things into thirty and fifteen seconds cut cut, Yeah,

(37:26):
but I still have that discipline though, of letting a
shot sit for sixty static shots sit for sixty seconds
and let the sound design, let the music fade out,
no voice over, and let the sound design fade in
to just.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
Put you there.

Speaker 3 (37:39):
And I think letting the mountains speak in that way
metaphorically really worked. And then, as I mentioned, my composers
score his mountains call theme as I call it because
it is it's like, how do you capture the emotion
of that ethereal it's almost supernatural call that happens when
you're literally just it's physically exerts, you're in nature. But

(38:00):
there's something, there's some other element that pulls people in
because it's really just it's not just fitness training and
it's not just beautiful views because otherwise people definitely wouldn't
do all forty six.

Speaker 1 (38:11):
Sure there's a mysterious quality too, and it's hard to articulate.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
Yeah, so go this and I think capturing that emotion,
I think.

Speaker 3 (38:20):
That's what brought people back again and again, and I'm
hoping that's what brings people back for the tenth anniversary.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
Absolutely so speaking of emotion, So you went on this
journey making this film, like throughout the actual course of
the film, like, how did it change you personally? We've
been talking all about the mountains, like how did you
change personally throughout this journey?

Speaker 3 (38:39):
I don't want to take too long, but many ways,
one of the big Ones was I had like my
first real heavy heartbreak, like shortly after announcing the film,
and and it wasn't just a heartbreak, it was also
a close friend, so like it was this really devastating
emotional experience for an eighteen year old maker college student

(39:01):
because now like my friend, like my social circle was
for all these things were going on. And that summer
where we did the bulk of our initial filming, the
summer at twenty thirteen, I spent a lot of time
on the trail, and because of the nature of like
having to set up rush ahead of everybody, set up film,
then let them get ahead of me, and then catch
up to them, I spent a lot of time on
the trail alone. And I couldn't pinpoint a moment for you, James,

(39:25):
But just through that process, I was a different person
by the end of that first summer, and I came
back to my college campus as a junior with this
like confidence and not an arrogance, not a cockiness. But
the mountains had taught me about perseverance, They'd taught me
about endurance, They'd taught me about resilience, and like, yeah,

(39:52):
I can sit outside at night in the woods and
not be panicked my anxieties.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
You know where my anxiety.

Speaker 3 (39:58):
Actually is doing what it was biologically wired to do,
and then I.

Speaker 2 (40:02):
Can function under that.

Speaker 3 (40:03):
And and also just the process of making something. I'm
sure you experienced that too, Like when once you do something,
you do it repeatedly and you you find confidence in that.
So I think that it built a lot of confidence.
It also just totally transformed the way people perceived me.
So when I, like I mentioned, when I first launched
the Kickstarter, they thought I was the most arrogant prick,
because you know, who's this eighteen year old sophomore trying

(40:26):
to raise you know, four or five times? Well, I
can't even get for my studentville. But as you mentioned,
it wasn't because I was so great. It was because
I was strategic and I was telling a story of
people cared about as it went along.

Speaker 2 (40:39):
I also just matured as a filmmaker.

Speaker 3 (40:41):
My interests grew, my subtlety grew, My ability to like
deliver things on set got better as well.

Speaker 2 (40:49):
So when I would work.

Speaker 3 (40:49):
With other friends on student films, I just had a
cool confidence. But yeah, I think the funniest thing for
me was coming back from just that first summer, and
all of a sudden, everybody was like, oh, you're this,
you know.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
Flannel wearing like backwoods mountain man.

Speaker 3 (41:01):
And I'm like, yeah, but I'm hiking Cascade and big sois.
In my mind, I'm like, these are these are not
the real backcountry peaks. But to people that were totally
green to the environment, They're like, whoah doing this. And
I think the other big emotional arc was just like
I was growing up. You know, I was coming from

(41:23):
being a young college junia basically at high school kids.
I graduated a year early, so I was young. I
was getting humbled repeatedly by the mountains, which was very
good for me. And I was learning from this community
and getting drawn into this story.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
And then that had an impact on me.

Speaker 3 (41:43):
Because I'm reflecting on the experiences of other people and
how to weave that.

Speaker 2 (41:48):
Into this narrative.

Speaker 3 (41:48):
I had like twenty four hours of interviews to cut
into this one hour film and like one hundred hours
of b roll and that also was really humbling and daunting.

Speaker 2 (41:58):
So I think all those factors swore together to.

Speaker 3 (42:00):
Just maybe a better filmmaker, maybe a better person, and
it gave me a deeper.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
A deeper understanding of my own like what am I?
Because any kind.

Speaker 3 (42:12):
Of physical test, as you know very well, is going
to reveal what's going on underneath, and it'll grow you.

Speaker 2 (42:18):
But it's also whittling away your excuses.

Speaker 3 (42:20):
It's whittling away your defenses and your facades.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
You can't hide who you are.

Speaker 3 (42:27):
From yourself when you're ten miles out on a trail
and your negos out like you just you can't who
you are and also who the people in your life
are show up in those moments. And I think being
exposed to that early in life gave me a solid
foundation that served me very well over these last ten years.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
I don't know if that answers what you're saying. It's
absolutely amazing.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
Growth in the mountains is ultimately what occurred or you
like that's your story as you're not just making the film,
but what you did, what you experienced personally in the
mountains led to you then showing up as a filmmaker
in a you know, more confident manner, and then back
at school and like everything stems back to your what
you learned about yourself in those peaks, on those trails,

(43:11):
in those woods, and it has seeped into the other
aspects of your life at that time. Magic absolute magic.

Speaker 2 (43:19):
Now what was it? What was it like for you know?

Speaker 1 (43:21):
What did the other what are your professors or what
did your fellow students think of? Like you who's also
doing like an actual film?

Speaker 2 (43:27):
Like how did how did that? Dynamico? That was fun?

Speaker 3 (43:31):
So again, like I said, once that initial semester passed
and I came back with proof of like I'm actually
doing it, You're doing it, it's all the races, then
it became a hype machine on campus as well.

Speaker 2 (43:42):
Cool and people were like, when's it happened?

Speaker 3 (43:44):
Because student film, the turnaround on student films is either
they they're buried forever or they're done in a couple
of weeks, usually maybe a semester. So it's very odd
to have a project that lasts for two or three years.
And I remember I used every opportunity I could to
use things I was learning on the film to fulfill coursework,
just because I was like, I don't have the bandwidth

(44:06):
and nothing I'm going to shoot in Virginia Beach is
going to come close to what I'm doing up there.
So there were obviously were still projects I had to
fulfill but a lot of times for editing or cinematography projects,
I pull things I was doing so my smart man
my screen and then when I had to screenplay and
format it, I had to go through all the interviews,
so I used that as well. But my professors were
really helpful and encouraging and challenged me in healthful ways.

(44:30):
And then I remember my senior year final semester, they
had like a big film festival they did every year.
None of the films I'd ever submitted had made it in,
and then I submitted a ten minute preview of the
forty six Ers and that got in, and I remember
that was my first taste of the theater experience that
would then come. That was twenty fifteen, So then come

(44:51):
later in August where that would start, and over the
next couple of months, I'd show the film in a
different theater every weekend.

Speaker 2 (44:57):
But they announced it, and I remember.

Speaker 3 (45:01):
The announcer mentioning, you know, this this highly anticipated, like
multiple years in the making, because everybody at this point
it was a small campus, so everybody on the campus
in the film program.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
Knew what I was doing, and nobody had seen anything
beyond a trailer.

Speaker 3 (45:14):
So when they announced you know, this sneak preview of
the forty six ers film like I for me. You know,
I'm sure it was subjective, but it felt and sounded
like San Diego comic coom back in early Marvel days
when they would announce the title of a new movie
just the way the place erupted, and then people watched it.
Then I came up and gave a really like I
memorized this speech and I had it down and it

(45:37):
was like part reflection, part sermon, part like sales pit.

Speaker 2 (45:42):
It was like the whole nine and kind of to find.

Speaker 3 (45:44):
The way that I speak publicly a lot in many ways,
and that to me was a really great validation of
the effort, because I turned down a lot of things
to do this. One of my only regrets, and I
say regret very loosely, is that I don't really have
a big folio of experimentation in student film. So now
when I have experimented in genres or things, it's been

(46:04):
with money attached or out of my own pocket, and
so the risk of the risk taking in that factor
is higher, where like student film, Okay, maybe my grade hurts,
but it's not going to impact my career.

Speaker 2 (46:17):
If my student film isn't great.

Speaker 3 (46:19):
Now, I'm like, no, I'm working for clients in commercial world,
Like I have to deliver on time, on budget, and
it has to meet their expectations or hopefully exceed them.

Speaker 2 (46:27):
So that's like one thing.

Speaker 3 (46:28):
I You know, in some ways I wish I'd had
more time, But on the flip side, I wouldn't be
who I am or where I am if I hadn't
committed to this process.

Speaker 2 (46:36):
That was grueling.

Speaker 3 (46:37):
I mean, I my health really took a toll though,
because I was keeping a full course load, keeping my
grades up for scholarship. I worked two jobs and then
on like breaks, long weekends, I would drive ten hours
home filming the mountains over a weekend drive back and
doing that over a couple of years, like it definitely

(46:57):
took a toll on me. And I still don't think
to this day I full recovered. So that's where the
you know, getting back into fitness and my wife and
I are working on eating better and you know, balancing
life out has been fantastic for me. But I didn't
know what balance was then, And you know, at the
same time, when you're eighteen, you really shouldn't be balanced.
You should be going full speed ahead of the things
that are going to build a foundation. And so I'm

(47:19):
so glad that I did that. But yeah, it's an
interesting journey.

Speaker 1 (47:22):
Yeah, dude, you learn to grind, you learn to persevere
and to do hard things. Keep going is It's exciting.
So it's twenty twenty five, ten years later, the film's
coming back to theaters. Talk to us a little bit
about what we can expect there where could people see it,
could give us about talk to us about this re release. Yeah,
So I'm really thrilled to bring the film back for

(47:42):
its tenth anniversary and coinciding with one hundredth anniversary of
Herb Clark and the Marshall Brothers finishing the forty six
It's this nice confluence. We're kicking off June fourteenth at
the LPCA in Lake Placid. Limited seating, so definitely go
to the forty.

Speaker 3 (47:55):
Six Ers film dot com and check out our screenings
page to get your tickets if you want to go. So,
we're also going to be in Syracuse, New York, Plattsburgh,
New York, and we are as of this recording, working
on Rome, New York, Rochester, New York, Albany, New York,
Glenn's Falls, Buffalo, and those are just some of the
ones that we might do as live events where I'll

(48:17):
be there and we'll have a table, we'll have some
special limited edition DVDs and Blu rays with a bunch
of new features. We'll have posters, we'll have merch and
it's just fun to meet people. I love talking to people.
It's always a good time. And then we're also going
to be just running the film in theaters around the
state wherever they'll have us. So check frequently on the
forty six ers film page if you want to see it,
because we our hope is that for anyone in the

(48:39):
state who's interested in even in the bordering states Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont,
that there will be theaters that will be showing the
film for a limited time and you'll have the opportunity
to go see it.

Speaker 2 (48:49):
Because really, like.

Speaker 3 (48:52):
You know, I know, people joke about like watching Oppenheimer
on an iPhone the way krysnal And intended, but there
really is something about films that are framed for the
big screen. And for all of the ways that I've
grown as a storyteller, I'm still really proud of every
frame of the film, and we absolutely shot it with
the intention of it being projected on a forty fifty
sixty foot screen, and the sound studio absolutely designed the

(49:16):
sound to sit in a theater.

Speaker 2 (49:17):
So it really is a unique experience.

Speaker 3 (49:20):
I don't know if it you know, at the twenty year,
if we'll bring it back or you know, who knows,
if we even have movie theaters then I hope so.
But I would say, like, if you have any interest,
even if you've seen it, like it's worth seeing on
the big screen because one, the visuals and the music
and the sound all just hit different than you're going
to get at home.

Speaker 2 (49:38):
And also that communal experience.

Speaker 3 (49:40):
I think what's so fun is going with friends and
then afterwards you talk about the movie. But more than that,
what I found in twenty fifteen was people would talk
about their own experiences. It would bring back memories for
people of their own journey. And so you go with
your friends and get stirred up about your own experiences
it get excited to go back out and do something again.
Like I think that that's the real power of storytelling

(50:02):
to me, and that's what's so exciting to get to
share with people.

Speaker 1 (50:05):
It inspires people and there they see themselves in what
you've created, and that that becomes That's how you're making
the customer of the hero. That's how you're making it
about other people, which is then about the mountains and
awesome stuff.

Speaker 2 (50:18):
Dude.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
How awesome is it too when you see something that
you worked on, like on the big screen in like
the movie theater.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
It's a great nothing like it. It does not get old.

Speaker 3 (50:27):
That feeling of especially seeing them in an audience and
hearing people laugh at the right time and kind of
feeling that you can feel the emotional energy in the
room when the sad.

Speaker 2 (50:35):
Parts of the film hit. Yeah, and then when there's.

Speaker 3 (50:37):
Funny parts or like you know, starling part people reacting
to the to the film is like such a cool
emotional experience.

Speaker 1 (50:45):
Yeah, it's it's always exciting seeing movies I did like
at the movie theater. It's it's it hits differently than
when you see it on streaming or your TV. It's
just something about the being at the theater, the big sound,
the seeds, the popcorn, the whole thing.

Speaker 2 (51:00):
Cool.

Speaker 1 (51:00):
So now you have something else you're working on and
talk to us a little bit about this new project.

Speaker 2 (51:04):
You got going here. Yeah, so this has been brewing
for a while.

Speaker 3 (51:08):
I from the time that the theater screenings were done,
I've contemplated doing a sequel, but it always felt like
it would be either a cheap cash grab or I
wouldn't really have.

Speaker 2 (51:17):
Anything else to say about the story.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
And after I worked, after I worked on the film,
I worked for Roost and Lake Placid for two years
visually representing Hamilton Franklin in Essex County. So that really
expanded my horizons about the Atirontic experience. I got exposed
to the cycling, the iron man world, the all the
water sports, all the winter sliding sports, the Olympic hopefuls,

(51:40):
the farms and the local communities and the small businesses.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
And because of that, I was like, well, I don't
know if I.

Speaker 3 (51:47):
Have the energy to do a whole other like feature
length film, and I also don't want to cheapen what
I've already done, so I put it off. I put
it off, and then finally, over the last year, I've
got I've spent a lot of time up here investing
into a new project that you're actually a part of,
and away and I am trying to tell a series
of short Adrondeck stories. So it's going to be Patreon based,

(52:09):
so monthly subscription to get insights behind the scenes, and
then at certain patron tiers they'll get to have a
say directly in what stories we tell next, which I'm
very excited to have that level of community involvement in response.
But the goal right now, just because of the pace
and the cost of producing things, is to do it quarterly,

(52:30):
but with a hope to do it more frequently because
there's so many stories. I've already filmed one with a
climbing guide, one with someone deeply connected to the Adirondeck
stewardship world about to interview someone deeply connected to the
mountains in a different way. And I've spent time with
ice climbers and kayakers and just getting a lot of
footage of the Adirondeck. So I'm really excited about this

(52:52):
new format of storytelling and this community involved way. And
that's also going to be over at the forty six
ers film dot com slash Legacy. You'll see the screenings
there and also the Patreon information, So if people are interested,
super fun like low pressure. The kickstarter was very high
pressure and crowdfunding is very exhausting work. I think Patreon

(53:13):
will be it's in it for the long haul because
there's so many stories to be told here. And my
producer and I were actually reflecting on this as PBS changes,
like they were kind of the bastion of quality storytelling.
Now it's coming into individuals, and so I feel this
is an opportunity to help tell quality regional stories. And

(53:36):
there's nowhere I love more than the Adirondecks, And there's
so many people in places here that I want to capture,
whether that's a documentary or a narrative or something that's
more ethereal and poetic.

Speaker 2 (53:46):
I think telling those stories is going to be exciting.

Speaker 3 (53:49):
Current plan, this could change, but current plan is to
release them exclusively on Patreon at first, and then eventually
the films will be out on YouTube for the public
to watch. So that's the goal right now. But yeah,
I'm excited about what future holds its.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
Great dude, you're continuing to tell stories about the mountains,
about the people here, about this this park, this crazy
this crazy park that we've all we've all seemed to
wild experiment, take taken too right.

Speaker 2 (54:13):
I love it very cool.

Speaker 1 (54:14):
So that's the forty six ers Film dot Com is
where all the information is view for there, so you know,
where can people find tickets to buy to go to
the theaters go to the screening. You know, obviously the
forty six ers Film dot Com is going to have
the info, but give us make sure. I don't want
people to miss out where they actually can support and
go see the movie.

Speaker 2 (54:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (54:32):
So since I'm a small business, I'm also doing all
the web development. But my plan is to have a
calendar view and a list and maybe a map view
as well with links to the theaters to buy tickets from.

Speaker 2 (54:44):
And also I'm planning to put a form on there.

Speaker 3 (54:47):
By the time this aage, it might already be up
there where people can request, like get information from their
local movie theater and request the film because I love that,
Like if you don't want to drive fifty miles to
the nearest screening, but you have a a small independent theater.

Speaker 2 (55:02):
I'm trying to stay away from the chains because I
think that like.

Speaker 3 (55:04):
Regal and AMC are going to be I'm gonna have
a much harder time getting into their rotation. Sure, so
I'm looking for the local mom and pop like support
local business support independent filmmaking and just like dive into
Adirondack experience and spend an hour with friends and family,
just immersed in the Adirondacks and remember your own memories
and get hyped up about your next adventure.

Speaker 2 (55:25):
I love it. Very cool, man.

Speaker 1 (55:26):
So as we start to wrap things up here, there's
always three questions I like to ask everybody that comes
on this podcast, so I'm going to ask you as well.
The first question is what is something that it's unique
to you that you always carry in your backpack when
you go hiking, But for you, I'm going to change that.
Is what tell us a unique story about you hauling
equipment filmmaking equipment.

Speaker 2 (55:48):
Somewhere in the high peaks.

Speaker 1 (55:49):
There's got to be a story that hits hits in
your mind when I say that, tell us that story.

Speaker 2 (55:54):
So it's going to it comes back to Cascade, man.

Speaker 3 (55:57):
I mean, there's so many other ones, but that was
just so egregious and ridiculous to be like, all right,
so we're going to carry a camera crane on my back.
And for those who don't know what a camera crane is,
tell it. Tell us what it came. So it's a
piece of equipment. In this case, it was a cheap one,
so it was like on a stand and then it
it pivots so the camera can go from really low

(56:17):
to the ground and go up like ten feet in
the air. But in order to achieve that, you also
need to bring counterweights, so we had counterweights and backpacks,
which again super counterproductive unless you're trying to do something
grueling and grindy.

Speaker 1 (56:31):
Like unless you're a great range athlete on purpose, you
probably don't want to haul weights.

Speaker 2 (56:36):
Up a mountain.

Speaker 3 (56:36):
No, no, no, And even one it's like gentle as cascade,
and then the other to make it even more just exhilarating,
was we met at the trailer at at two am
because my goal was to have this gorgeous sunrise and
I was so ready. I'm like, all right, the crane's
going to come up from one of the rocks on cascade.
We're going to reveal this group of eight hikers who
were doing a through hike of the Arondecks.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
They were all teenagers.

Speaker 3 (56:58):
It was part of a summer camp program where they
just threw hiked all summer and they.

Speaker 2 (57:05):
Were finishing on cascades.

Speaker 3 (57:06):
I'm like, great, I'm going to get there finish, we're
going to have the sun coming up behind him, and
the crane's going to come up, reveal the sun, reveal
the hikers. This is going to be the marquee shot
for the movie. And I had people from Albany, people
from Plattsburgh, all met there at two in the morning,
so most of us, you know, left our homes at midnight,
like we were not well rested. And we hiked up

(57:27):
and we could see Lake Placid from the first outcropping
on the way up cascade and we're like, great, it's clear.
We could see the stars, went back in the tree line.
Then when we broke out of tree line, we were
in a cloud and we got to the summit a
cascade and broke out the camera gear and sunrise came
and we were in a cloud and my poor hiking
friends were waiting down there. I'm like, just wait another

(57:49):
half hour, guys, please, because I really want this shot.
And then it wasn't going to happen. I couldn't hold
these poor kids in this weather. So they come up
and actually I'm very you know, the grand scheme of things,
I'm grateful for. But now the shot is camera cranes
up from the rock and you see these guys just
getting battered by the wind in this socked in cloud
as they hike up to the summit. And then my

(58:10):
crew was going to mutiny, I think, because I kept
insisting that we stay, and this was the only hike.
My executive producer joined me on. He was not a hiker,
and he was cold, and everybody was cold and wet
and tired, and here I am like, no, guys, just
stay a little long.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
You know.

Speaker 2 (58:24):
I know you've been up since midnight and it's.

Speaker 3 (58:26):
Now like seven in the morning or eight in the morning,
and we just hiked a mountain carrying all this weight.

Speaker 2 (58:31):
But now let's just stay a little longer.

Speaker 3 (58:33):
And right as they were about to turn on me,
Carl Heilman, the Adirondic photography legend, like emerges like an
apparition out of the fog and comes up from as
he had come up from his helme, and he said, oh,
you know, I was thinking the conditions would be better today,
but let's just wait it out. So then everybody's mood change.
We wait. We had like plastic bags over the cameras
because the moisture was so intense, and then suddenly this
big gust of wind blew the cloud off the summit

(58:55):
and we were exposed three hundred and sixty degree views
a total inversion, so we had we were above the
clouds and blue skies in every direction and suddenly it
was like a cartoon the way everybody scattered around the
summit to shoot all these scenes. So that was a
really really special day and just an egregious example of
like carrying this ridiculous shape thing.

Speaker 2 (59:18):
And also it should know the camera crane.

Speaker 3 (59:20):
Like I just put it in its bag, so it
was just like those webbing straps. It wasn't like a
backpack and a couple miles of that. Definitely, it was
definitely awkward, and it was I think four or five
feet tall in the bag, so carrying it was just
really uncomfortable, but it was worth you know, I was committed.
I was the one who carried I'm like, I'm going
to do this. I need this for this shot. And

(59:41):
that was really because I didn't have the aerial photography
for a while. That was the moment that really like
solidified the visual identity of the film.

Speaker 2 (59:47):
Awesome.

Speaker 1 (59:48):
You were the leader that day, having to do what
the leader does, so to do there's so many Verplank
Colvin vibes coming from you that day. I don't know
if you guys don't know about Verplank Colvin the great
adronic serve, but his crew many times were turning on him.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
He'say, no, we got to keep going. We got to
keep going. But you know that's what the leader does.

Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
So I got I got major Verplaine cold and vibes
as you were telling me that story. And additionally, you know,
talk about life lessons that the mountains taught you that day,
about hey, we just got to wait out a little longer,
and then look what happens because you didn't. You didn't
give up when it wasn't looking good. You didn't give
up when it was hard. You didn't quit. Oh it's
not what I want to know. You waited it out
and then you were rewarded for waiting it out again,

(01:00:29):
a life lesson learned in the mountains to not quit
too persevere and another prime example.

Speaker 2 (01:00:36):
Of how these mountains will teach you that. Yeah, man,
and you said it perfectly there. So I've just had
a little note on that. It's like there were other times.

Speaker 3 (01:00:42):
Where like when I hi Taysteak, that did not clear
up at all, and we were in the rain and
the clouds and it was and then when we.

Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
When we crossed the water like and I got.

Speaker 3 (01:00:52):
On the other side of that, that's when my knee
went out. And then I had to limp all the
way back to JBL, and then the next day we
had to limp all the way back out of there.
And so I also learned that you're not always rewarded
for your hard work, but you do it anyway. And
I think that those combinations of things really were formative.
But yeah, that particularly, they definitely rewarded perseverance, and it

(01:01:14):
rewarded the grid of the team, and also it taught.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
Me that which has been a mainstay of mine.

Speaker 3 (01:01:20):
I'm definitely not if iOS to place myself alongside other
like directors. Not to be pretentious, but I'm definitely not
David Venture in that I'm not trying to precisely and
pristinely exactly execute my vision because I understand the environment
is going to change. I understand that, you know, the
weather is going to give me maybe not what I wanted,

(01:01:40):
but what I needed. And that day was the prime example,
because that shot of them coming up fits perfectly with
what one of my interviewees said, and I had an
interviewed him at the time.

Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
I interviewed him later on and he talked about it.

Speaker 3 (01:01:50):
It's not all perfect days, but it's about the experience
in the community and persevering and you're not just you know,
always in the sun in seventy degrees.

Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
And so that shot that.

Speaker 3 (01:02:03):
We got, that I was really hoping to be the
marquee shot, ended up being so critical to tell the
story I was trying to communicate.

Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
So awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
There's always a lesson to be learned as long as
you're looking for it, and as long as you actually
absorb the message of the mountain Taffrey that day.

Speaker 2 (01:02:18):
Awesome. So next question, why is the Adirondacks a unique place?
In your mind?

Speaker 1 (01:02:24):
What makes this park, this community, is hiking community, the mountains,
et cetera.

Speaker 2 (01:02:30):
What makes it unique?

Speaker 3 (01:02:32):
So many things, I think on a pragmatic level, just
the unique blend of public and private land, this land
experiment with a lot of new growth given all the
fires and the logging that had happened a century ago
and change. So it's the testament to that symbiosis of
people living really close to the wild nature.

Speaker 2 (01:02:53):
And having vibrant community I think is really amazing.

Speaker 3 (01:02:57):
It Also in one of my Patreon stories when that
when I have the you know, when that's rolling and
I have time to edit it and the support to
get it done, one of the points that came out
was how amazing the conservation, Like how we've reversed negative
things by the by the things that organizations and state
agencies have done in this in the park, which is
really incredible for the world we live in. And then

(01:03:19):
I think there's just something ethereal and mysterious about these
old rock formations that are it's not the Rockies, but
it's also definitely not a walk in the park pun intended.
And I think that physical challenge, the kind of ethereal
natural beauty, and this weird call of the mountains that like,

(01:03:40):
I just can't I always feel like I'm home when
I come back up here, even though I like literally
lived up here, but even before then, I feel like
I'm coming to a place that's just home. And it's
hard to put a a value on that or hard
to hard to sum that up.

Speaker 2 (01:03:58):
I think that's really unique.

Speaker 3 (01:04:00):
And then I guess the final thing would be just
the way that the community is so involved in the
preservation of the idea of the adround, like that Forever
Wild idea. Obviously it's written into the law, it's part
of the framework, but it also really informs the way
people live here and the way people play here.

Speaker 2 (01:04:18):
And I think that's really unique and special.

Speaker 1 (01:04:21):
Yeah, the Forever Wild ethos is alive and well in
the park and it's very cool.

Speaker 2 (01:04:27):
Great answer, by the way, I loved everything that you
just said.

Speaker 1 (01:04:29):
So my final question is I mean, normally I ask
people like, why do you hike? Why do you put
yourself in these hard pitch places where like, no one's
making you do that?

Speaker 2 (01:04:37):
You know, no one that making you out there. I'm
going to change it for you.

Speaker 1 (01:04:40):
Why do you feel the need to tell the stories
of the mountains, to tell the stories of the people,
to tell the stories of the Adirondacks. Because that's what
you're doing, You're telling the stories. So why do you
feel that these stories need to be told.

Speaker 2 (01:04:54):
That's a really good question. I think I think.

Speaker 3 (01:05:03):
A couple of things. People need to see. Inspirational stories,
but not cheesy stuff. I'm not into sensationalism. I'm not
into just trying to ramp up the views or go viral.
I think people want something that's a little bit more
transcendent and lasting than that, And to me, the Aderontics
are a perfect canvas for that there and not just
a canvas, but a character in the story. I think

(01:05:25):
that's another pieces. I feel connected to this landscape in
a way that I don't to the mountains in Vermont.

Speaker 2 (01:05:31):
In New Hampshire or other places I visit.

Speaker 3 (01:05:33):
I mean, the Smoking Mountains are beautiful, but I don't
have any emotional connection to them. Maybe I will someday,
but the Adorotics for me, just have this allure. I
also think, like I've reflected on this as a lot
as I've started thinking about this Patreon series, there are
people and you're right, in these circles that are.

Speaker 2 (01:05:53):
Much more.

Speaker 3 (01:05:56):
Like really risk taking adventury, like out deep in the
back country. I know some of these guys that are
out like like the guys that do the wild Planet
stuff and sit for two weeks in a box in
silence just to get a shot of a bird or
something like.

Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
I couldn't do that.

Speaker 3 (01:06:13):
I'm not built like that, and I know that about myself.
So there's those guys, and those are a whole different breed.
I know there are people that are probably more contemporized
documentary filmmakers than me, and there's probably people you know
in this like maybe trifecta of things, like a little
more outdoors, the people who are more at aroundeck savvy
than me, who live here and have lived here their

(01:06:35):
whole lives. But I think at the intersection of all
those things, I'm probably the person at least I know
that best hits the filmmaking ability, the passion for the place,
and the knowledge of the place. And I think that
rare combination puts me in a unique place to tell
these stories visually.

Speaker 2 (01:06:52):
And also I have my own visual.

Speaker 3 (01:06:53):
Style, so even if somebody else checked all those boxes,
our films aren't going to be the same, Our story
sensibilities aren't going to be the same. I've never been
a trend chaser. I for better or worse, like just
struggle with trends. But I think that gives I hope,
that gives my work a more lasting piece than I
think the adironics deserve that.

Speaker 2 (01:07:13):
I don't think the aderontics.

Speaker 3 (01:07:14):
Deserve trend chasing and TikTok dances and like, you know, whatever,
the latest hype is or meme, even though that stuff's hilarious.
There's some guys in the Northeast that are doing really
funny stuff on Instagram, but like so no shade to them.

Speaker 2 (01:07:27):
But that's just not me.

Speaker 3 (01:07:28):
I want to tell these lasting stories that are human
stories that are about growth and change and transformation and
humility and perseverance and all these things that are really
deep values in mind, and I think they resonate with
other people.

Speaker 2 (01:07:41):
I mean, I hope they do. We'll see.

Speaker 3 (01:07:43):
But the forty six ers film was proof positive to
me that people do care, and I think giving people
giving audiences a reward for their concern and their care
is something that drives me so well.

Speaker 1 (01:07:56):
I'm one of those people that resonates with all those things,
and I think that's probably what we've connected on a
personal level so well as well as our you know,
our view of this park and what it brings to
the table for people ultimately and why like telling the
story of the park is more important than anything else
to highlight it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:16):
Great stuff. So where can people find you online? Blake?

Speaker 3 (01:08:18):
So I am on Instagram at Blake Court. I'm semi
active there. My portfolio website is Blakecourtwright dot com. I
do have a form there if people want to get
in touch with me or you know, people have ideas
for things, you can check out the patreon. Go to
the forty six ers film dot com slash Legacy Patreon
link will be there, mostly because by the time of

(01:08:41):
this recording, I haven't really just picked a name.

Speaker 2 (01:08:43):
For the series yet, So once again, it's going to
be one of those things.

Speaker 3 (01:08:46):
I think listening to the listening to the landscape, and
listening to the community that's going to shape it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:50):
And I'm totally open to that. So for now it'll
probably just be the.

Speaker 3 (01:08:53):
Forty six ers, but forty six ers film dot com
slash Legacy joining the Patreon and throwing your voice, like,
tell me, what are the stories that people really want
to hear, Because clearly people had an interest in the
forty six high peaks.

Speaker 2 (01:09:05):
I'm curious about.

Speaker 3 (01:09:07):
Ice climbers and people that are doing these like long
paddles through the park or backcountry camping, or that are
starting a business or that are continuing a generational business,
or people that moved out of the city and bought
land and started at farms that like these. They are
so fascinating to me, and I'm excited about the opportunity
to give each story its own care.

Speaker 2 (01:09:27):
But yeah, that's really the main areas where people can
get in touch with me.

Speaker 3 (01:09:30):
I try to keep my social media life pretty personal,
but then my public facing stuff, I do engage with
people and I try to I also have a YouTube channel.
It's at Blake Court, right, and that's pretty active as well.

Speaker 2 (01:09:42):
So yeah, any of those places super fun. All right,
very good.

Speaker 1 (01:09:46):
Well that's going to wrap up this episode of the
Summit Sessions here on the forty six of forty six podcast.
Make sure you guys check out the forty six Ers
film tenth anniversary re release coming to theaters this summer.
Head over to the forty six Ers Film dot com and.

Speaker 2 (01:10:01):
Get all your information there.

Speaker 1 (01:10:03):
Thank you to Blake for coming on the podcast right
here at Shed Cores, and thank you to you for
listening to this episode of the Summit Sessions. Tune back
in on Fridays for new mountains, new stories, new guests,
and new episodes right here on the forty six to
forty six podcast. Head over to forty six Outdoors dot
com to see all the different ways I can help
you have a safe and successful Adirondack adventure. Whether it's

(01:10:25):
helping you get in shape for the mountains or it's
given you the information that you need to know.

Speaker 2 (01:10:29):
Head over to forty six outdoors dot com. Lots of
stuff for you there, but that'll do it.

Speaker 1 (01:10:33):
Remember to always leave no trace, do the rock walk,
and if you carry it in, carry it out.

Speaker 2 (01:10:37):
See you on the trails, Blake, see you there.

Speaker 1 (01:10:41):
Hi.

Speaker 4 (01:10:41):
My name is Devin and I just want to talk
about my great range athlete experience. So I signed up
after listening to James's podcast and following on social media
and I saw all of these posts and just kind
of words of wisdom about what strength training can do
for your hiking. So I love to hike a loving
outdoors and I'm slowly working on my forty six myself.

(01:11:03):
So what I wound up doing is, you know, looked
into the program and I actually checked out one of
the podcast episodes from one of the old teams talking
about what a good impactful program was. So I decided
to take a chance on it, and I got to
say it was like excellent. It was structured really really well,
it was nice and flexible. What I liked about it
is that it offered me the opportunity to use weights

(01:11:24):
if I wanted to do body weights if I wanted to,
I could kind of shift around the workouts to accommodate
my schedule. And actually halfway through the program, I wound
up going on a cruise with my wife, and I
was able to stay on track, like I was able
to use the gym on board the ship, and it
really helped kind of instill that sense of discipline and
desire to work out in me. And I gotta say,
like it worked, you know, like I'm stronger now, I'm

(01:11:46):
fitter now. My most recent hike and my most recent run,
like I'm hitting prs that I didn't think I could hit.
And what it's really inspired me to do was keep going.
So we now have like a wonderful group of people
that I've met within the Great Range Athlete team, people
that I kind of consider friends that I haven't quite
met yet, but God knows, I'm sure that we're going

(01:12:06):
to hit each other up on the trail and we
talk all the time. We still maintain our conversations, and
then just for fitness in general, like it lit a
fire in me. So now I work with James one
on one as part of a seek to Do More
program which has just been a really wonderful transformative experience.
So I really I have so many good things to
say about the Great Range Athlete Program. You know, just

(01:12:29):
if you're on the fence, give it a shot. Like
you know it's it's putting you in a community with
a like minded group of people who love hiking and
who love working out, and they will cheer you on.
They'll make you a better version of yourself. So give
it a shot. You will not be disappointed.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}194.) Summit Sessions #70: The 46'ers Film with Director Blake Cortright

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194.) Summit Sessions #70: The 46'ers Film with Director Blake Cortright

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