Sweetgrass Productions: On The Road with Solitaire

Via the Sweetgrass Crew:
In the high desert of South America, winter takes hold, devouring bleached bones and abandoned shacks. Into these most inhospitable of lands, a handful of drifters emerge from the whiteout, ready to cast their lot on forsaken peaks both merciless and magnificent...

As the Sweetgrass Productions family takes to the South American peaks for two winters of filming, join them for a "behind the scenes" look at their upcoming film, Solitaire, coming to a town near you in Fall 2011. In the winds of snowbound badlands and the blizzards of primordial forests, from a horse’s saddle and a paraglider’s wings, ridden on ski and board and telemark, Solitaire fuses western-inspired tales of backcountry gambles into landscapes never before visited on film. Born in the spires of Argentina’s legendary Las Lenas, a lonely two-year journey begins through an abandoned world, wandering the length of a continent from Peru’s Cordillera Blanca to Chilean Patagonia.

The infrastructure for filming was spartan at best. Locations were often extremely remote and dangerous, and at altitude. Snow was notoriously unpredictable. The wind and cold were unfathomable. The sheer scale of the terrain was beyond daunting for a lone man struggling upwards on skins or snowshoes. However, despite facing unexpected difficulties and a challenging landscape, the basis of Solitaire’s dream held true through the troubles. Sweetgrass Productions set out to make a film about the individual alone in an unforgiving and impossible environment, built on the spaghetti-western ideals of cojones and perseverance. In Fall 2011, Solitaire will venture beyond the frontiers of most mountain films, bringing to the big screen backcountry riding forged in the tradition of Western cinema.

2 Years 5 Winters, a twelve-part series of shorts, is a behind-the-scenes peek at the wild experience of filming Solitaire in the remote and magnificent mountains of South America. Follow Sweetgrass Productions as they venture into uncharted territory to create a full-length mountain film that spans the length of the continent. Through monthly webisodes, Sweetgrass Productions will reveal the trials, tribulations, and unexpected joys of filming their third film

For more information, please visit www.sweetgrass-productions.com