How Mallory Duncan’s Artistic Vision Crystalized Into a New Kind of Ski Film
It’s been almost three years since Mallory Duncan captivated the ski world with his award-winning film, The Blackcountry Journal. Those who had heard Duncan’s name before were quickly shown what folks who have the pleasure of meeting him in person already knew: that Duncan is so much more than just an athlete.
His breakout film gave the world a look into one of the most creative and thoughtful minds in skiing. The PNW-based skier has one of the most unique ways of connecting his many creative outlets—poetry, jazz music (saxophone, specifically), filmmaking, and storytelling— to skiing.
Those who were captivated by Duncan’s previous films (which is just about everyone who has watched them) have waited in anticipation to see what he creates next.
Duncan has continued the connection between skiing, jazz, and spoken word into his new film, Lines. In the 2026 POWDER Photo Annual, Jake Stern gives a deeper look into Duncan’s background and the making of Lines.
You can read an excerpt from the mag below and catch Lines on Duncan’s Noise Ordinance! Film Tour.
The 2026 POWDER Photo Annual is here! Look for a print copy on a newsstand near you, or click here to have a copy shipped directly to your front door.
The Music Within The Mountain
This story appears in full in the POWDER 2026 Photo Annual print magazine. Hit the link to have a copy shipped to your door, or look for it at a newsstand near you.
Words by Jake Stern:
It takes confidence to begin your ski film in a barbershop. After gaining such wide acclaim from his debut film, The Blackcountry Journal, Mallory Duncan felt he’d earned it. “I came into this with zero formal training,” the 33-year-old athlete and filmmaker said. “I didn’t go to film school. I don’t know almost anything about shooting a camera.” But what Duncan possesses is a singular vision, one that produced the most compelling ski movies in years. Once he saw it cometo life, Duncan knew he had to keep pushing.
Drawing parallels between jazz music and backcountry skiing in The Blackcountry Journal, Duncan wanted to extend the metaphor. His next film, LINES, connects performance in the mountains to writing and rapping 16 bars. “Rap is an art of performance, as much as it is of writing,” Mallory Duncan says. “It takes an enormous amount of preparation before a rapper gets on stage ready to recite a verse. Backcountry skiing is the same way.”
Duncan’s attitude toward ski filmmaking is distinct. In the hyper-saturated world of 15-second clips and low-effort content that swirls around the internet, Duncan posts beautiful imagery infrequently, instead opting for concise, artistic, thoughtful cinematic releases. In his mind, the ski films that begin with a skier atop a big face ready to drop miss the majority of the story. There is so much expertise that comes with selecting a line, planning a weather window, seeking the right snow, and assessing safety. It’s like writing a verse—you have to iterate over and over until it’s perfect. Only then can you get on stage to perform.
In LINES, Duncan combines these elements of backcountry travel and verse writing while incorporating elements of barber-shop culture into an eight-minute film that reflects on different modes of human expression, anticipation, and catharsis. Duncan cuts between shots of him pushing deep into the backcountry—ruminating on his choices on the skin track and beneath his tent—with rapper Chima the Stubborn preparing to take the stage. The tension feels heightened compared to the more pondering Blackcountry Journal, with emotions bubbling to a fantastic climax.
The 2026 POWDER Photo Annual is here! Look for a print copy on a newsstand near you, or click here to have a copy shipped directly to your front doorto read the rest of this story.
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