UI Ski Team to show Pretty Faces at the Kenworthy, female skiiers take the screen
According to professional skier Lyndsey Dyer’s production company, Unicorn Picnic, although women make up 40 percent of the skiing population, only 14 percent of athletes in recent ski films have been women.
University of Idaho student and Ski Team member Lindsey Anderson said she could attest to this statistic. She said women athletes frequently face discrimination in the sports industry and are often not represented equally in films and media.
“I grew up skiing and experienced a lot of sexism in the sport,” Anderson said. “So I think this is going to break those barriers and hopefully prevent those misogynistic attitudes in the future, and to prove to little girls that they can also be as good as these female athletes. It just gives young woman an example that they can follow.”
To bring more attention to women athletes, particularly skiers, Dyer worked with other athletes to create Pretty Faces — a documentary about female skiers from a female perspective.
With collaboration between the UI Ski Team and the Women’s Center, the film will be shown at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Tuesday at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre. Tickets are $8 for students and $10 for general admission. Many sponsors donated door prizes to be raffled off during the show.
Assistant Director for Programs for the Women’s Center Bekah MillerMacPhee said the film is powerful and provides insight to an overlooked issue.
“I think it’s timely too, since it just got cold and it’s really about winter sports,” MillerMacPhee said. “I think it would be good to get not just women inspired, but others as well.”
Anderson said she sees the film as instrumental in representing women in sports, particularly women in skiing.
“It’s a great movement that Lyndsey Dyer is doing that’s going to help support female athletes,” Anderson said. “She’s doing it for all female athletes who don’t really get their time to shine in the skiing industry. She wanted an opportunity for all these women to get their time on the screen.”
Although the movie is touring across the country, it has some Idaho roots as Dyer grew up in Sun Valley, UI Ski Team Coach Jerry McMurtry said.
McMurtry said the ski team puts on a movie fundraiser every year, but said this movie is different from movies they have shown in previous years.
“I think they will see something that’s high energy, fun, but it’s a little different,” McMurtry said. “It’s nice to have an Idaho movie.”
Dyer said inspiration for the film stemmed from her belief that future generations of girls and women need to be accepted in a world of tough sports, like skiing, and they need to ultimately feel comfortable in their own skin.
“I wanted to give young girls something positive to look up to,” she said. “I wanted to give them their Blizzard of Ahhs, Ski Movie or High Life, but done in a way that also shows the elegance, grace, community and style that is unique to women in the mountains.”
Kelsey Stevenson can be reached at [email protected]