X-Dance celebrates both sides of action sports filmmaking

SALT LAKE CITY — Climbing and skiing Alaska's Mount St. Elias. Surfing an Indian Ocean reef. Traveling through the outback of New Zealand.

For some of the world's top extreme sports athletes, it's all in a day's work and play. But without filmmakers following them, their stories would never be seen or told to a wide audience.

Thursday in Salt Lake City, the annual X-Dance Action Sports Film Festival kicked off its annual six-day run, celebrating the achievements of both the athletes and action sports filmmakers.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of X-Dance, one of several "dances" held at the same time as the Sundance Film Festival.

"We never thought we would have gotten to this point. It was a unique idea for the industry, but it was so accepted and everyone was so excited about it, it just exploded," said festival director Brian Wimmer.

The festival has grown by 25 percent each year. This year, 40 films were chosen from a list of 130 entries. This year's highlights include "an incredibly soulful" film featuring surfing legend Rob Machado in "The Drifter," Wimmer said. Also a film called "Mount St. Elias," which he called "one of the most beautiful cinematic movies we've ever had."

The action sports festival is not about showing movies with the craziest tricks or worst wipeouts, he said, but rather to show something that even nonsports fans will be interested in seeing.

"It's about telling stories. That's something we've pushed forever because we want to get away from what we call the 'action porn.' We want to get into the heart and soul of the athlete," Wimmer said. "We want to keep our core values but be able to deliver it to the mass market. We're not in the business of making snuff films. We're into the art and athleticism behind it."

Extreme sports, whether it be skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing, mountain climbing, sky diving or kayaking, has always been about freedom of expression, he said. Although it's fun to watch, it's not just about competitions like the X Games and the Dew Tour.

"The whole competition thing is a way for the rest of the world to put butts in seats and qualify and quantify its existence. 'Well if you have butts in seats, it's happening.' No. It's been happening for 100 years in the back mountains of Utah. Now we have a stadium and suddenly we exist because you're watching us? That really kind of goes against the grain of what action sports is about," he said.