Chamoniard Didier Lafond's 1983 "Apocalypse Snow" won the first ever Autrans film festival prize and became a highly awarded cult film which toured with Nuit de la Glisse and popularized snowboarding in Europe. A quarter century later Didier Lafond returns with the sequel, "Apocalypse Snow Le Retour," shot in Chamonix. This time instead of promoting American novelties like 'snowboarding' (which did catch on even in Chamonix, birthplace of the monoski), the film might do a lot for speedriding. In 2006, anyone celebrating a particular post-season 20cm powder day in mid-May taking a cheeky "alpinist" cable car up the Grands Montets would remember the dozens (hundreds?) of black Apocalypse-caped riders jamming in the cable car (o.k. thanks to them we got to go up another time) and storming down the front face of the Grands Montets. Hard to miss the fact we were witnessing the beginning of what was to become "Apocalpsye Snow Le Retour." The 4 min teaser, "Bobines de l'Extrême" which was already the audience favorite in Autrans back in 2007 in the Festival Off extreme sports film festival, generated a lot of anticipation. And now, "Apocalpse Snow Le Retour" will be available on DVD very soon. Don't miss the Avant-Première of this year's Nuit de la Glisse in the cinema on December 20th. Who knows, maybe it will generate another cult film? Also in Autrans, another Chamoniard, Gilles Chappaz took first prize with his film, "Berhault" a documentary commemorating the climbs of Patrick Berhault across the 4000ers of the Alps. CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE TRAILER
