Inside Mountains of the Moon with Chris Benchetler
– Chris Benchetler
Where Art, Skiing, and Sound Collide
Maverick and imaginative, Chris Benchetler’s Mountains of the Moon is a bold collision of art, action sports, and experimental lighting, brought to life by the organic music of the Grateful Dead. Benchetler’s creative vision—on and off skis—sets the film firmly in a genre of its own.
We sat down with the Mammoth Lakes local to speak with him about his film, which was filmed in part on Mammoth Mountain.
The Vision Behind the Film
To start, can you tell us about Mountains of the Moon for viewers who haven't been able to see it yet?
CB: It's a culmination of everything that's important to me, that has shaped me into my perspective. It's about connection, it's about art, it's about sport, and it is honoring the legacy of the Grateful Dead and everything that community represents, and trying to utilize athletes, and lighting specialists, and film specialists to all bring this massive art piece together.
Mountains of the Moon blends skiing, art, music, and visual storytelling in a really intentional way. Why was it important for you to work in a mixed media format for this project?
CB: As an artist, I love experimenting. I love exploring the depths of my own consciousness... and being able to try new mediums and try different elements is inspiring to me. I'm not great with words, [so] my art is my journal. It’s flowing through me and coming from something bigger.
I think Paul says, "From mycelium to the galaxies" at the start of the film. The cosmos is very intriguing to me and just how this whole human existence is happening in the first place, and how it's all connected. I just try to be available with an open heart and an open mind, and let these ideas move through me. And my best way to translate that has been with a paintbrush, really. So, I just keep trying to do that... and immerse people inside my mind and my paintings, basically.
A lot of those connections seem rooted in the idea that when people feel connected to something, they're more likely to care for it. How intentional was that from an environmental or stewardship perspective?
CB: It was very intentional. I don't like how divided our world is, as do many people. I often don't feel like I know enough to be telling people how to think and what to do... I can just highlight what's important to me in a beautiful way. The goal is to just make people think about how special this planet is, and hopefully then they'll think about caring for it instead of decimating it.
[People ask me,] "Why don't you speak out?" [But,] I'm trying to speak out through a different way that will hopefully... last a very long time, that will make people think for decades, and decades, and decades down the road, and honor these important things.
I'm happy with my approach as long as I can try to raise loving, caring children that will hopefully give more to this world and try to be caring and loving themselves. That's all I can really do.
MAMMOTH Roots
You filmed in so many different places for this film. Did the journey begin here in Mammoth and the Eastern Sierra?
CB: I was going to say the journey began in my mind, but I live here and this area shaped me, so absolutely. I mean, seeing these landscapes for my entire life, and skiing in these mountains, and growing up in this community... it was an extension of me and the life I've created. So one hundred percent, all my inspiration has stemmed from growing up here. I still don't want to live anywhere else. I love it here, and I'm trying to hopefully bring new life and new ideas into the community.
Starting a project like this is a big undertaking. What did it mean to begin on your home mountain, and how did starting in Mammoth influence the direction the project took?
CB: It was very meaningful to be here. It was my decades of relationships. Mammoth is very much a community, and there's a lot of passionate people that work for the mountain, and a lot of them are my friends or my friends' parents or the people that I grew up with. Being able to lean on that community and feel like I had the support on every level was amazing, even from the leadership down. It was all people that care about these mountains, care about this town, and care about what I was trying to do, which was making art for the sake of art.
[I included] very intentional people, very intentional locations that shaped me, and [intentional] perspectives and ideas. Where we skied on Chair Five is something I skied for my entire life... I wanted to rethink those places and highlight them in unique ways.
So, how has growing up here shaped the way you ski, create, and see the mountains?
CB: How I ski... I have to give a lot of credit to snowboarding. Mammoth was very forward-thinking with snowboarding and terrain parks. The type of skiing that I do was heavily influenced by that. Had I not grown up here, I might have been a completely different skier.
A lot of people from my generation would look for the biggest cliff and jump off that and land on their back. Faster and bigger was the technique. But... growing up here influenced me to look at the mountain much more creatively.
And then my art background also helped me draw these unique lines and start focusing on how skis turn and how to rethink ski technology, which led me down a whole different road. I think there's elements of [skiing] that I would have maybe never been exposed to if I was at a more traditional ski mountain.
THE MAKING OF THE FILM
A lot of this film takes place in the dark. What challenges did that present, and how did working in darkness actually expand your creative options?
CB: Challenges are endless. It's so complicated with just the weight of lights and the power of lights... Like, if we take snow, for instance. The snow reflects light, so in theory, you can use less light to shine [on] more area. But then when you spray or do anything, that light reflects and blinds you. So, the actual skiing element became more complicated.
But then it also went into using the colors. If we would use darker blues and purples, that would replicate like moonlight a bit more, which looked beautiful on camera, so we wanted it, but it was really hard to see the contrast and textures [of the snow].
Then the positive side with light is that you can control the sun, and so you can highlight shadows and textures in really cool ways. We brought lasers into the field, so we were able to trace shadow lines with lasers and do really artistic things there. And because it's not a sun line that's moving... the shadow is never going to change. And so that presented a lot of amazing opportunities.
It was a learning curve, and some parts of it were incredible, and some parts of it were super challenging. But it was important to me to use light as a medium to do something artistic for the film.
Can you talk a little bit about the process of building the Mammoth snow statue?
CB: That was a very last-minute decision. Originally, we wanted to tow [an art car, Titanic's End] up onto the mountain on a platform of snow. That presented a ton of problems. So, weeks before the shoot, I found some sculpture artists, and they all came together, ten of them, and knocked out this whole concept that I had. Worked day and night.
And going back to the universe and the cosmos, the fact that we had the time to sculpt it and to use it without it just getting buried in ten feet of snow... there was so much risk. So, I was very concerned, but I also just trusted in the process and found good people, and we made something that honored Mickey being at Mammoth.
What did it mean for you to have Mickey Hart play on your home mountain?
CB: It's impossible to describe. It felt very humbling. I'm extremely grateful that we were able to honor him, his legacy, and his music and make sure we respected everything that he represents.
And then for him to get here and actually be moved and blown away with the level of effort and attention to detail that we put into everything, and for him, as one of the greatest drummers to ever live and he's in his eighties, [to have] never experienced anything like that, is [so] humbling.
What was it like seeing your footage from Mountains of the Moon displayed in the Sphere while the Grateful Dead’s music played?
CB: You feel like you're stepping into the future. It is so massive and so much bigger than you can ever really come to terms with until you step inside. And it's all the senses, all the creativity, all the technology, colliding into this one venue.
I feel very honored. I feel very humbled. I feel grateful. I feel all the feelings. It's a very pinch me moment to, to have that opportunity.
Looking back on the finished film, what are you most proud of, and what do you hope people take away after the credits roll?
CB: I'm most proud that we got to the finish line, that we actually pulled it off.
And I hope people take home whatever is important to them at that moment in time.
If that's feeling the urge to go out into the mountains, if that's feeling the urge to pick up a paintbrush, if that's feeling the urge to treat someone with kindness, if that's feeling the urge to learn more about mushrooms. Whatever it is, I hope that this film contributes to expanding global consciousness.
