Filmmaker Greg Stump started out as a competitive freestyle skier, just as the combination of downhilling and aerial tricks was taking off in the 1970s and 80s.
According to the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame, he was known for his explosive style on the slopes — Stump once detonated a bomb to kick off a ski ballet routine — and brought that same high energy to the extreme ski movies he would later produce.
Stump is presenting four of those movies at Aspen Film’s Isis Theater this month, for a series called “Radical Wednesdays.” It begins tonight, with a screening of “Maltese Flamingo” — complete with old-school narration, an original score, mountains of epic skiing footage, and a mini-mockumentary within the movie about the secret life of sleeping bags.
“It's ridiculous,” Stump joked in an interview with Aspen Public Radio. “But, … looking back on it, I'm like, wow, this really was pretty innovative.”
Stump said he was inspired by the “hip” approach of ski filmmaker Dick Barrymore, who invited Stump to star in one of his films in the 1970s.
“I just got the bug, and I thought, ‘this is just one guy doing everything, and I can do that,’” Stump said. “I just reinvented myself one day, at 23 years old, and declared that I was a ski filmmaker, and it was as simple as that: ‘I'm a ski filmmaker.’”
He was also influenced by the “gonzo” stylings of journalist Hunter S. Thompson and artist Ralph Steadman. No wonder “Maltese Flamingo” was a favorite of the Good Doctor himself.
“I have never called myself (a gonzo filmmaker), but I've been called that in the press, which I find very flattering,” Stump said. “And the fact that Hunter … even knew about this movie is fabulous.”
The series will also include showings of “Groove Requiem: In the Key of Ski,” “The Blizzard of Aahhhs,” and “The Legend of Aahhhs.” Screenings will be followed by afterparties at the Fat City Gallery — which houses a collection of Steadman and Thompson’s work.
Neon onesies and other throwback outfits are encouraged.
