Parkite Megan McJames has experienced a lifetime of adventures as a three-time Olympic alpine skier, and she’s stepping into another adventure — motherhood. The world will get a glimpse of this feat when Iz La Motte’s short film, “Trails Still Blazing,” which was part of the Girl Winte r Film tour that stopped in Park City last October, premiered on Flylow Gear’s YouTube channel on Feb. 20. “Releasing a film has stages, and it’s always exciting to bring it on tour and be in a room with people watching it for the first time,” La Motte said. “But releasing it online is exciting because anyone in the world can watch it, and it’s the easiest way to get it in front of as many eyes as possible.”McJames came up with the idea of “Trails Still Blazing,” which runs just over eight minutes, as a follow-up to Chris Kitchen’s 2023 KGB Productions’ feature-length documentary, “Trailblazer.”  That film followed McJames’ six-year journey to become the first skier to qualify for the 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympic Games as an independent skier. “The idea really came from Megan,” La Motte said. “So, we worked together to figure out the best way to tell the story that was authentic to her. We storyboarded it out and brought it all together in production.” McJames first met La Motte nearly eight years ago. “Iz was a photographer at Alta, and I have a great relationship with the Alta Ski Area,” she said. “We had gone out to shoot photos a couple of times, but then she spun off and created her own production company. So, when I had this idea for ‘Trails Still Blazing,’ it made total sense to have a female videographer and producer on the project. I reached out to her, and she saw my vision.” Making a film, even a short film, involves so many stages, according to La Motte. “You spent all this time dreaming and scheming about what it will look like, and then you start filming it,” she said. “Every time it’s a special experience of watching all the pieces fall into place. Sometimes they fall into place exactly how you want them to. Other times you have to pivot, and that’s a case-by-case scenario.” La Motte discovered in her years of filmmaking that films about the ski industry are dependent on conditions, weather and athletes, and there is more pivoting than other industries. “I would say things fell into the place pretty much exactly how we wanted them to,” she said. Well, except for a plan to travel to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, according to McJames. “There is a peak that I wanted to do, but the conditions just didn’t work out,” she said. “So, we lined up doing something in Little Cottonwood Canyon, which turned out really great.” La Motte enjoyed the Little Cottonwood shoot. “We got to ski a zone in Megan’s home range of the Wasatch, and that ended up being really special,” she said. Including McJames’ daughter, Hazel, who is 3, and Scout, who is 1, added to the magic, according to La Motte. “Megan’s two daughters are just the sweetest and cutest little girls, and one of my favorite days of filming was the day we spent with Hazel,” she said. “I’ve spent a lot of my career on big mountains and in deep snow, and being on the Magic Carpet (covered conveyer belt lift) that day was a joy and a lot of fun.” McJames also loved that shoot. “The concept of ‘Trails Still Blazing’ came out of this identity shift that I had been trying to reckon with,” she said. “It’s about loving that big adventure and pushing my limits on the mountain, and reconciling that with being a mother and a caregiver and passing on my passion for skiing to these two young girls.” McJames address this during one of the film’s interview segments “We have that conversation in the movie, and there has to be other women and parents out there who are also trying to figure this out, especially in Park City,” she said. La Motte conducted the interviews in McJames’ home in Jeremy Ranch. “Megan and her family had just moved in, so we had to get a little creative on what that looked like,” the filmmaker said with a laugh. One of the interviews is with McJames’ husband, Cody Marshall, a retired World Cup Slalom skier. “One of my favorite interviews was not so much of my own, but watching my husband give his,” McJames said. “Iz and I had a story arc of what we wanted to do, and watching him answer questions and seeing where he would go was my favorite part of the interview day.” The couple married six years ago but have been together for more than 10, according to McJames. “He was very supportive of me when I was still ski racing, and he helped me get to my second and third Olympics as an independent skier,” she said. La Motte had met Marshall a couple of times before she began making “Trails Still Blazing,” but the interviews were the first times she got to spend a lot of time with him.  “He is just so kind and so supportive of Megan,” she said. “He supported her throughout her athletic career, and now, you can just see how proud he is to stand alongside her in this journey of parenthood. Although the film is primarily about Megan, she was so set on including him as well, and it was a special thing to include him in the film.” McJames also wanted to include a fellow skier, Anna Marno, a U.S. super-G alpine champion. “Anna talks about how she’s trying to figure things out with family planning, and it’s good to have a role model like that in the film,” McJames said. “Just because you’re a mom doesn’t mean you have to give up a sense of adventure that has always been a part of you.” La Motte met Marno the same way she met McJames — shooting photos and videos at Alta. Filmmaker Iz La Motte checks her camera during a shoot for “Trails Still Blazing” at Alta. The documentary short film, which will premiere Feb. 20 on YouTube, is about Utahn and retired Olympian Megan McJames and her life as a mother. Credit: Photo courtesy of Katie Cooney “Megan and Anna have also known each other for a long time because they were both on the U.S. Ski Team,” La Motte said. McJames and La Motte wanted to include Marno in the film to show audiences that becoming a mother doesn’t mean putting a halt on pursuing passions. “Megan was so set on continuing to be this adventurous woman, so she can show her daughters that it’s an option for them as well,” La Motte said. Initially McJames and La Motte thought of showing more of Marshall in that segment. “But we had already captured them skiing together at Alta during a storm day,” La Motte said. “So, I thought it would be impactful to essentially showcase this narrative of Megan handing off the torch, and I felt having a female touring partner with you would enhance that.” In the film, Marno says McJames is showing her what’s possible as an adventurous mother. “I think this is a message that a lot of women who have chosen the path of motherhood can really relate to,” La Motte said. McJames said La Motte captured what she wanted to say. “Iz did a great job outlining the story before we started, so we had a good idea of the footage we needed,” she said. “Something I like to do with these films is to make something like an adventure, and the whole process of making the film was so smooth because it was like two friends out on a ski tour.” McJames is still learning how to process what she’s going through as a world-class athlete and mother. “I’m finding there is no right or wrong way, and that it’s about getting in touch with that intuition as a parent, which is similar to when you’re in the mountains taking risks,” she said. “It’s about standing on top of a peak and not sure if you can do it, but you step up to the challenge.” Iz La Motte’s short documentary, “Trails Still Blazing,” features shoots from the backcountry in Little Cottonwood Canyon. The film, which premieres Feb. 20 on YouTube, follows Parkite and retired Olympian Megan McJames. Credit: Photo courtesy of Iz La Motte La Motte is honored McJames trusted her with the story. “I really believe as a filmmaker you really have a large responsibility to make sure that whatever you’re creating feels genuine and authentic to the person who you’re telling the story about,” she said. While McJames looks forward to the film’s online premiere, she is already looking ahead to other projects. “This whole film experience has been a learning process, and it takes a lot of work,” she said. “Your whole heart and soul goes into them. And I have some more film ideas. So stay tuned.”  ‘Trails Still Blazing’ Online Premiere When: Feb. 20 Where: Flylow YouTube Web: meganmcjames.com/2083-2 The post Park City-based Olympian Megan McJames embarks on a new adventure appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less