This Unique Ski Movie Blends Skiing, Rapping, and Spoken Word

Snow streaks across a dark screen. Wind whistles in the background and is joined by the rhythm of jazz drumming. Despite the separation provided by the screen, the viewer feels the chill of a cold, stormy winter night. The drum solo intensifies, and a blurry light in the distance appears. 

If hip hop is culture, then rap is the story.

The light becomes a tent, lit from within, and then a dark skin track and a skier with a headlamp approaches before cutting away to a car on a city street in warm, daylight. 

This is the beginning of Lines, the sophomore film written by skier Mallory Duncan. It’s clear almost instantly that this is not your traditional ski film; a fact that played a huge role in making the film what it is.

Duncan’s inaugural film, The Blackcountry Journal, explored the relationship between skiing and jazz and was widely acclaimed upon its release. Although in many ways a different project, Lines builds off what The Blackcountry Journal started and takes the exploration a step further into that of skiing, rap, MC’ing, and spoken word.

Lines follows Duncan as he tackles two significant ski lines in the Sierra by entirely human powered means and Seattle-based rapper, Chima the Stubborn, as he prepares for and performs a show. Duncan’s poetry narrates the first half of the film before giving way to an original soundtrack by 2 Die and Zak King feat. Chima.

You can watch the full film below and keep reading for more on the film’s making from Director Josh Goldsmith. 

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Watch: Lines, A Ski Film by Mallory Duncan and Josh Goldsmith

Josh Goldsmith is a director and EP from New York, now based in Seattle, who specializes in commercial and documentary work, but also holds a deep passion for work in the outdoor space.

Goldsmith saw The Blackcountry Journal and, like most others, was moved by the film. When the chance to work with Duncan on a piece arose, Goldsmith jumped at it and quickly found that he and Duncan had a similar approach to what they were looking to create. 

When it comes to story telling on any project, Goldsmith’s first task is usually trying to untangle the core human experience from the film’s subject. “What is this person experiencing? How does this piece need to reflect that?” said Goldsmith.

Above all else, Lines is still a ski film, so for Goldsmith, much of this challenge was in trying to convey the effort and experience that goes into a human-powered approach to skiing two significant lines in the Sierras, and how that process affected Duncan’s psyche. Filming foot-powered backcountry missions also comes with its own challenges, which Goldsmith welcomes as another piece of the puzzle. Additionally, it was important to both Goldsmith and Duncan that the film’s narrative portions felt as authentic as possible. They decided to shoot it in Seattle, where Chima is based, with a largely local film crew. 

From early on in its making, Lines was centered around a piece of prose Duncan wrote, which serves as the film’s narration. “What if this gentle wind against my face issues a warning? /Go home, young fool/ Or come back when you’re old and grey and wise, one day,” reads Duncan in the film.

It was clear to Goldsmith that while the human experience he was trying to portray was that of a skier, it was also about the interpersonal battles that take place when folks perform at a high level in anything. “What’s so brilliant about what he [Duncan] wrote, is that it does perfectly relate to performing in both of the arenas that we filmed,” said Goldsmith, referring to not only Duncan skiing, but Chima’s performance as well.

Essentially, the film conveys each person’s internal experience within an external world. 

Lines earned a finalist spot at Banff Mountain Film Festival, a nomination for best cinematography at the Freeride Film Festival, and an award for Best Director at the same festival.

The film no doubt holds its own as a standalone piece. However, even Goldsmith noted that the way Lines was shown during Duncan and Xander Guldman’s Noise Ordinance! Tour, which featured live scoring for each film shown, was the context in which it should be viewed.

“Not everyone will see it that way, obviously, but it truly made me view the film in a new light,” said Goldsmith. The final Noise Ordinance! show takes place in New York City on December 9, 2025.

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