Flying Skis
1951 · 9m · Canada
Directed by Harry Foster
Genres: documentary, sports
Tones: whimsical
Sportscaster Bill Stern narrates Laurentian winter sports, from figure skater Pete Curran to horse-drawn skijoring. Slow motion follows skier Alex Foster before a closing exhibition.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A 1951 sports doc narrated by Bill Stern should be a snooze—instead it's weirdly alive, swinging between figure skating and horse-drawn skijoring like someone made a playlist out of their fever dream. Foster knows exactly how uncool this mix is, and leans into it anyway.
The slow-motion sequences anchor this film in a specific moment of technical innovation and aesthetic possibility—Foster situates *Flying Skis* in the lineage of experimental sports cinematography while the Stern narration creates a knowing tension between earnest spectacle and whimsy. It's a small masterpiece of formal restraint.
The decision to let slow motion do the emotional work instead of the narration—letting Foster's silent skier hold the frame while Stern yammers about everything else—transforms what could be rote coverage into something genuinely moving, and on a 1951 budget that's remarkable.