WHY THIS FILM MATTERS
XYZ matters because it captures the moments when a generation of pioneers transformed sport, travel, music, style and filmmaking into a new culture of freedom, movement and flight.
Through rare footage filmed from inside that movement, the film preserves the moments when skiing, snowboarding, paragliding, mountain biking, surfing and other glisse sports were breaking new ground and entering the public consciousness.
Today’s athletes stand on the shoulders of those pioneers, pushing the same desire for freedom and progression into new realms of performance.
By connecting three generations through the archive, XYZ is both a record of where this culture came from and a celebration of where it is going.
(c) Mark Shapiro
THE ARCHIVE
Captured on the cutting edge of the zeitgeist
What makes the archival material exceptional is not simply its age, but its seminal place in history.
Captured from inside the movement, much of the footage was filmed as these sports were shaping the zeitgeist rather than looking back on it.
Locations include Switzerland, USA, Canada, the Himalaya (India & Kashmir) Japan, New Zealand and Mauritius.
(c) Ace Kvale
XYZ is both a map of movement through space and a map of the generations that carried the dream of flight forward.
La glisse — the sensation of weightlessness, movement and freedom — is the common thread connecting these sports and the cultures that grew around them.
THREE GENERATIONS
The Pioneers. The Professionals. The Future
Generation X — the pioneers of snowboarding, paragliding, big mountain freeride, and early action-sport culture.
Generation Y — the athletes who carried these movements into the global professional era.
Generation Z — today's skiers, snowboarders, surfers, paragliders and wingsuit flyers pushing the limits of aerial performance.
Today’s elite athletes are not isolated stars; they are the inheritors of
dreams first imagined by the pioneers featured in the archive.
THREE DIMENSIONS
X — movement across space
Y — movement through distance
Z — movement into flight
