Boise brothers’ street skiing movie is set to premiere downtown. It’s ‘Electric’
Justin Kennedy and his brother Mason are used to going big, but premiering their latest film at a historic Boise theater will be one of their biggest feats yet.
The brothers, members of a skiing crew called OnSlaught, or OS Crew, will premiere their film “Electric” at the Egyptian Theatre on Thursday. It’s the pair’s seventh film focused on their skiing exploits, and the premiere will be the largest they’ve had.
Justin, 26, and Mason, 29, grew up snowboarding and later skiing at Bogus Basin, where they started competing in slopestyle as young teens. The sport is a spin on traditional downhill skiing that includes terrain-park obstacles like jumps and rails.
In 2011, the brothers submitted a short film of footage from their 2010-11 season to the Bogus Basin Ski Club Dotty Clark Video Contest. Their edit took first place, earning them a chance to show their video at the Egyptian ahead of “Like There’s No Tomorrow,” from the entertainment company founded by legendary ski and snowboarding filmmaker Warren Miller.
“We kind of found out by accident that we could make full-length movies and feature films,” Justin Kennedy told the Idaho Statesman in a phone interview. “It was our dream since that day to rent out the Egyptian.”
“Electric”
The Kennedys’ movies focus on street and urban skiing, and “Electric” is no different. It’s 27 minutes of snowy stunts and wipe-outs reminiscent of MTV’s “Jackass” as the brothers and their crew traveled from Boise to Minnesota in pursuit of the next exciting move.
“This movie was our first year receiving any funding from our brand sponsors,” Kennedy said. “We were able to get to locations we dreamed of being at.”
The crew’s sponsors include J Skis, Bern Helmets, Spy Optic, NorthPull Winch, Newschoolers.com, Line Skis and Full Tilt Boots.
“Electric” shows the crew spending hours constructing the perfect jump or runway before suiting up in sponsor gear and using the winch — a portable tow cable with a handlebar to help the skiers gain speed — to launch into tricks.
“I’d say ‘Electric’ is our best film yet,” Kennedy said. “We got to go out to the Midwest and spend a month in Minnesota street skiing. Every day we were out in the cold, shoveling snow, building huge stuff, crashing, trying again until we got the shots we were all stoked on.”
Don’t expect to see shots from around the terrain park at a ski resort. The OS Crew hit everything from snowy beaches to the cement supports underneath bridges. One shot shows a skier gliding through the middle of a large public sculpture.
Kennedy said the crew often worked on setup at night to avoid getting shut down.
“One thing that’s really cool about the streets versus the park is that the scale of the features can get as big as you want,” he said. “You drove by that spot years ago, and you imagined putting in all that work to make it possible to do, and then you put in all that work and make it happen.”
How to watch Boise brothers’ film
“Electric” is showing at the Egyptian at 6:30 and 9:10 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 3. Tickets cost $15, and Kennedy said attendees can expect plenty of opportunities to head home with swag, from sunglasses to skis.
“We hope we have enough stuff that everyone who comes will leave with something, even if it’s just a sticker,” he said.
After the premiere, “Electric” will also be available online at newschoolers.com or on the OS Crew’s social media.
Kennedy said the showing at the Egyptian has been a chance for OS Crew to embrace the skiing community in Idaho. The homegrown group, founded by the Kennedy brothers as a group of friends skiing Bogus and making clothing, now includes more than a dozen skiers and athletes from other extreme sports. It bills itself as a way to support and unite people through action sports. The crew has a line of clothes and accessories and in February hosted “The Gathering” at Bogus Basin, an event that invited skiers from around the region to show off their stunts at the terrain park.
Soon, the crew plans to be back on the road. Kennedy said this winter the group plans to head even farther east to Quebec and Montreal in eastern Canada, as well as parts of the East Coast of the United States.
