'Let It Ride' - An Interview With Filmmaker Jacques Russo

Filmmaker Jacques Russo has been working for three years on "Let It Ride," culled from his own ten-years of filming with Craig Kelly. It will make its US premiere at X-Dance. His comments are edited.

JR: I was skiing in those days and quite involved in mountaineering, having made three films about it. I didn't even know what snowboarding was but the Canadian Burton rep told me about snowboarding and about this world champion Craig Kelly. I thought, "This is interesting. It's a new sport. There's a story there." I  called Craig up and said I wanted to make a film on him. We met, talked it over and worked together for ten years like that.

Lat34:What was the draw for him to leave competition behind to focus on films?

JR: It was the first time he had been exposed to filmmaking and he wanted to maximize his time and do as much as he could. The Smooth Groove [1989] made it onto TV in quite a few places. It was the first snowboard film on A&E and Discovery Channel. Films were giving him more exposure and revenue than he thought so he was like, “Let's make another.” Craig was no fool.

JR: Craig did all the work; I give him all the credit. I have a good sense of storytelling. The two of us together did quite well. I borrowed $35,000 to make The Smooth Groove. There was no e-mail in those days, so Jake [Burton] sent me a FAX saying he saw The Smooth Groove, we really captured the spirit of the sport and he'd be interested in sponsoring further projects. That grew exponentially for five or six years. There was no video, we were shooting it all on film.

Lat34: Not only did you have the most footage of the greatest rider but on 

Lat34: You say Craig wanted to maximize his time. Did he sense it was limited?

JR: Craig would always think about what he was going to do and he'd do it very efficiently. He was just very driven. He was always thinking what was his goal, what was he trying to achieve and how could he get there the fastest way? The same way he'd drive a car. Even his pranks [laughs]!

JR: He was the last person you'd suspect. There are so many stories, most of them involving cars. There was the one about them opening the door on a rental van and it ripped off. So Craig took a roll of duct tape, taped the door back on and brought it back to the rental place. He drove under a bridge that was too short in New Zealand and shaved the top off the motor home. He got away with a lot.

JR: There's a whole Jungian psychoanalysis about the Trickster. If you're a prankster you're one more step to discovering who you are. There was definitely a serious side [to him] that was always questioning what he was doing, where he was going, and his motivations. He was the first snowboarder I’ve seen reading Carlos Castaneda—he was 

constantly reading. He was constantly observing. Craig was a great listener but he would never give you all his cards. There was a lot more to who the guy was and snowboarding was really an expression of that.

JR: I've shot with a lot of people and never encountered someone with his style. His fluidity, he was never loud—that's how he was with people. How hard he would work at his riding—the guy would hike and hike and that was a reflection of his inner strength. He'd work really hard at getting where he wanted to get.

JR: With the movie I tried to show his progression. The further he got in his thinking—what really made him feel good—he'd go deeper into the backcountry.

JR: He still had a lot of projects going, building a backcountry resort, a split board— there were a lot of people who thought that was a waste of money. He wasn't reading magazines. He wasn't watching videos. But suddenly, when the accident happened, he was on the cover of newspapers around the world. That was a shock for me. What he represented was suddenly gone. People never thought he'd go. You think if you live your life in the right way, you'll go on forever. And in a way, you can say he does.

JR: I truly believe he had found a happy place in his life. That's part of the tragedy: Here's this guy who's been seeking something all his life. He finally finds it and it's taken away from him. He knew the danger. If he'd died in a car accident it might not have had such an impact but it was like he went the next step. There are people in 

Nelson who believe his spirit is in a raven now. Quite a few people told me that and these are sensible people. The raven is a mystical animal around there but to hear them talk about it, it gets pretty far out.

JR: If we were wondering where we were going, we’d say, “Let Craig tell us the story;” to build the story around what Craig was saying. At the beginning, it was really hard. Eventually, our editor, Jennifer Abbot was able to pull different things out. She didn't know Craig, she knows about storytelling and about people. If I had cut this myself, it would've come out very different.

JR: The message that's universal is that we're all humans. We all have dreams and goals, but at the end of the day, it's the journey that really matters because Mother Nature can take over at any time and decide what's going to be your fate. If anything, I'd like people to seize the day. It's simple but very powerful and true.

JR: Craig was about Craig, let's be frank. He was doing things for his own growth and pleasure but what he did can touch everyone as an individual. Craig had no vanity. He'd never boast about who he was. The movie had to be like that, too. His family says it reflects who he was and the credit goes back to him. I dreamt about Craig many times. It gets emotional when you hear him talking every day.

JR: A little over a year. First of all, I'm just not a guy who wants to exploit somebody dying. There was a mourning time. His father Pat was really close to him and the executor of his estate. I told him whatever happens, you're going to have to make the decision. It was weird, too. Right after the accident, I must've had a half-dozen 

phone calls, “We're making a movie on Craig and we hear you have all this footage.” It was so MTV-like and Craig wasn't an MTV dude. This is a movie about mountains, individuals and how you live your life. It's a tribute.

JR: I had to deal with a lot of grief and many people hadn't. In the movie when the accident happens, it happens. That's just like life. But for a lot of people we interviewed that was the first time they really realized he was gone. It was very humbling to have people show that emotion. In the end, I only used one guy [who broke down]. You can really milk that emotion but that’s cheap.

JR: I never claimed I was Craig's best friend. In the last five years I wasn't seeing him much at all. Now, I feel like I know quite a bit about him. I'm now a bit of a Craig-ologist.

JR: I had people in two categories: Witnesses to what was going on and testimonials from people who were close to Craig. You'll never hear [the witnesses] tell what Craig felt. They tell what was going on in the sport and the industry. But people like [longtime friend] Steve Shipsey and Craig were e-mailing their whole life.

Lat34: It’s the first movie that goes into how competitive Sims and Burton 

JR:  That is just the way that it was at that time, anyone who was there will tell you that.  You don't need to dwell on it, but it was a big part of Craig’s life. It's not like I haven't ruffled a few feathers but we had to get the story right.

JR: From Steve Kroshel, a great guy who lives in Alaska, shot on 35mm. What’s interesting is the shots were all taken from the same area where he died.

JR: Canada’s Selkirk Range is one of the most scenic mountain ranges in the world and it's one of the strongest places to learn mountaineering skills. It’s big and steep and where the lightest snow falls. Everyone admits you take risks out there. Craig was doing everything possible to be safe. He wasn't even on his board, from what I understand. Craig was the tail guide, making sure the group stays together. That's his job as a learner. [Mountain Guide] Rudy Behlinger was the last guy who saw him and said the guy in front of Craig had lost one of his climbing skins [fabric that allows skis to climb in snow]. Craig was running up to give this guy his skin and if he hadn't been doing that, he might've missed it.

Lat34: You have to wonder if global warming contributed to such a major slide.

JR: It was a deep instability. Rudy had been touring there for years and had never seen that slope avalanche. There were two other avalanches in the area and the third one is what hit them. The whole mountainside went down. But the story doesn't dwell on that; it's just a part of life. It's more interesting to look at how Craig led his life than how he died.

JR: I knew Craig liked Metallica so I hooked them up at a concert and they hit it off. We shot an interview with James and Craig cat-skiing at Steamboat. That'll be on the DVD. Hetfield wasn't  that good at snowboarding so to ride with Craig, I have a lot of respect for that. I thought James would be a great voice so I rang him up and James  remembered the trip. I sent him the trailer and he said it's a worthy project; I'll do whatever I can, I'll show up wherever. It's a friendship thing, there's not much money involved. James is a pretty soulful guy to pay tribute to Craig.

JR: The way we went for the music was, [his partner] Savina loaned us what Craig was listening to. We built on that: Metallica, The Doors, Johnny Cash.

Lat34: Nice fringe jacket you wear in the film and at the Whistler Film 

JR: [Laughs] It's a jacket my dad gave me, a moose jacket. In the film I’m wearing it when we went to Japan, we liked to freak them out a little. The reason I was wearing it at the premiere was kind of a joke but a tribute to the old times.

JR: That was great but what was even greater was to have 1,500 people totally silent and mesmerized by what was going on in front of them and to leave on such a high. Awards are great, but Craig really had an effect on people. [When they see the movie] People are like, what have I been doing? It's a big audience but the Whistler Film Festival 

JR: It’s a true documentary, biography and story. As a filmmaker, I can only be grateful. My best footage was with Craig. It was like, here's his story—now make a film. This is only going to happen once and he