New Ski Film 'Subtle' Captures The Magic of Skiing With Friends

Last winter, skiers Celeste Pomerantz and Delilah Cupp ventured throughout British Columbia and the North Cascades in search of snow, preferably of the powder and slushy varieties, chronicling their exploits in the new movie Subtle.

Ski films, ideally, make the audience want to go skiing. Subtle does just that. The duo enters the white room on more than one occasion, ticks off a few aspirational springtime lines, and bounces through pillows.

Alongside the rowdy skiing, Subtle is funny and includes one of my favorite off-the-cuff quips from a ski movie this year (spoiler alert: listen for the words “adderall” and “Zyn”). 

In Subtle, there’s also a quick moment or two that proves that even if you’re a pro like Cupp or Pomerantz, things in the mountains don’t always work according to plan.

“I thought for this project that it was important to include the reality of how it goes when you don’t nail it,” Cupp told POWDER in an email, noting that Pomerantz, as a ski buddy, excelled at keeping her spirits up in those cases. What isn’t subtle is Cupp and Pomerantz’s camaraderie, which shines through in the film.

Check out Subtle below and keep reading for the rest of our conversation with Cupp and Pomerantz.

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Watch: Subtle | feat. Celeste Pomerantz & Delilah Cupp

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Delilah, at one point in the movie, you seem to get frustrated about a line not panning out. How do you deal with setbacks when the cameras are rolling?

Delilah Cupp: For better or for worse, I don’t have much of an issue “expressing emotion” when cameras are out. Of course, the camera adds an extra layer of pressure and expectation to nail the line, but I thought for this project that it was important to include the reality of how it goes when you don’t nail it. To be honest, I have been really hard on myself when I don’t meet my own expectations (in terms of skiing and everything else), and Celeste has been huge in digging me out of the darkness, on this particular day and many other days last season… Her patience with me is unmatched. Who I’m with definitely determines how I deal with setbacks while filming, and that’s one of many reasons why choosing your ski partners is so important. 

I was a big fan of the soundtrack. How did you go about choosing songs and, more broadly, what makes a good ski movie song?

DC: Celeste and I are both big on music but have very different tastes in genres—she is big on electronic house vibes, and I am more on the surf rock tip. For this piece, we tried to meet in the middle and choose tracks that felt true to each of us throughout the film. We put a collective playlist together early in the editing process and listened to it constantly. I did a lot of plugging and playing while putting footage together, and when in doubt, I hit Celeste up, saying, “Urgent, find me an alternative song for this line right now. Reply within 3 minutes,” and she never let me down! To me, a good ski movie song is one that matches the energy of the piece and makes you want to add it to your own ski playlist. 

Celeste Pomerantz: Everything Delilah said about the music selection is true. We have pretty distinct music tastes, and putting together a playlist early on with our general vibe or “dream songs” helped us piece it together. I think the film reflects our differences not just as people and skiers, but also through the music. Honestly, a good ski movie song is one that matches the personality and style of the skier.

Ski movies can’t capture an entire season. Were there any memorable moments during the filming of Subtle—triumphs or mishaps—that the cameras didn’t catch?

CP: The whole film was shot over just six days of total filming. We got incredibly lucky with the conditions up in the Callaghan and were able to pull most of the piece together from those first four key days. I think we did a great job of capturing almost all of our triumphs. Ed was amazing at keeping the camera rolling, which really helped show both the highs and lows. In terms of mishaps, both Delilah and I had times when we weren’t feeling our best. Those parts weren’t entirely caught on camera; it was more moments of doubt in ourselves. But we always managed to pick ourselves back up and keep going.

Pillows were a big part of Subtle. Are they as fun to ski as they look?

DC: Haha… I was skeptical about this whole Canadian pillow skiing thing going into the filming of this (it was really my first time getting to ski this kind of terrain). But they are definitely fun. Very challenging. Each line presents its own challenge, and you really don’t know what you’re gonna get until you’re in it. It’s rather addictive.

CP: Like Delilah said, they’re so fun and also super addictive. Even though I’ve had a few extra days skiing pillows, this was really both of our first times on features like that. They’re absolutely not as easy as they look in the movies, and I think we both learned a lot throughout the process of skiing and shooting on them.

Watch: Celeste Pomerantz’s Pillow Lines for ‘Subtle’

With ski season arriving, what’s next for you two?

DC: Great question, and I can’t wait to find out! Lately, I have felt pulled in a lot of different directions in terms of genres of skiing, people, locations, etc., and I am hoping to go with the flow this year and take opportunities as they come up. And, of course, take advantage of Celeste’s amazing tour guiding skills in B.C. and beyond 😉 I have enjoyed progressing my editing and filmmaking skills with Subtle and would like to keep that momentum going with a piece that is on a very different vibe next year. 

CP: Hopefully, Delilah’s planning on sticking around in BC this winter because we barely scratched the surface of the terrain I want to show her. We haven’t made any plans for another joint project yet, but I’m sure we’ll end up in front of some cameras again this season, whether that’s for sponsor shoots or something else. On my end, I’m currently cooking up a project that’ll take me all over the place. I can’t say too much yet, but hopefully that one’s a go.

Related: How Mallory Duncan’s Artistic Vision Crystalized Into a New Kind of Ski Film