Midwest Ski Area To Host Movie Night With Iconic Filmmaker

Minnesota skiers, clear your schedules—an opportunity to re-up on pre-season stoke is just around the corner.

Storied ski filmmaker and Armada Skis co-founder Eric Iberg, along with Matthew Zabransky of Midwestskiers.com , will show a series of ski films at Hyland Hills, a small ski area in the Minneapolis area, on Saturday, September 7th. Iberg and Zabransky will attend the event for a meet-and-greet.

The event starts at 5:00 p.m., and entrance is free. Food and drinks will be available to purchase.

The films are a mix of new and old. First is a 2007 flick from Tanner Hall and Constantine Papanicolaou called Believe, which documents Hall and a crew of fellow freeskiers as they tackle rugged big mountain terrain.

Another slot goes to Stay in the Tow Path: The Hyland Story, a new release from Zabransky and Nick Barr. “When throwing around ideas, my team came up with producing a short documentary, and it was the perfect answer for our movie night,” said Zabransky via email. “So many people get their start skiing and snowboarding at Hyland, so we thought it would be fun to highlight the history and importance this area has.”

The third film, Idea , is another throwback. It was directed by Iberg and Eric Pollard, and stars top freeskiers like Pollard, Pep Fujas, and Andy Mahre.

Both Iberg and Zabransky have deep roots in the Midwestern ski scene. Iberg grew up skiing at Hyland Hills, and Zabransky is from Chicago, Illinois. After some time away, Iberg now lives within 20 minutes of Hyland Hills.

Iberg, who now serves as a manager for professional skiers Phil Casabon and Henrik Harlaut, took interest in what Zabransky was doing with Midwestskiers.com several years ago. The website and YouTube channel, which Zabransky founded, functions as a source for news, resort reviews, and other Midwest focused ski content.

“I thought I loved Minnesota or Midwest skiing,” said Iberg of Zabransky. “This kid is the most passionate person about skiing that I've ever met in my life. And I know Glen Plake well, and I know Tanner Hall well, but this kid is next level.”

“I reached out to him [and] told him I love what he's doing,” added Iberg.

Iberg and Zabransky linked up last summer to discuss the decreasing number of preseason events across the Midwest, especially in Minnesota . The pair wanted to fix that by creating a preseason gathering for the local ski community. Eventually, the upcoming Hyland Hills movie night was born.

Hyland Hills made sense as a venue for several reasons, including Iberg’s personal connection to the ski area. More broadly, Zabransky noted that Hyland Hills—despite its humble stature—is where numerous pro skiers have gotten their start. Finally, the ski area already had a summer movie night schedule.

“What better place to host an event like this?” said Zabransky.

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