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Extreme athletes are the superstars in ski and snowboard films, but the mountains and shooting locations add special character to a movie in their own right.

The mountains around Haines, Alaska, play a pivotal role in the latest Teton Gravity Research film "Re:session," a location that has become world renowned for its steep and deep chutes and heli-runs. The film will make its Southeast Alaska premiere at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, at the Juneau Arts & Culture Center. Tickets cost $10 and are available at the door or at Aurora Projekt downtown.

"That place is essentially the Mecca of big mountain riding and a lot of things contribute to that," supervising producer and cinematographer Josh Nielsen said.

Haines provides the filmmakers with close proximity to a town, good staging areas for the helicopters, amazing scenery and epic big mountain riding for the athletes, he said.

"All that kind of converges and makes Haines pretty much the crown jewels," Nielsen said.

Seth Morrison, one of the most exciting big mountain freeskiers in the sport, said he looks forward to coming back to Haines to film every March and April.

"It's kind of the last hurrah for the winter and pretty much everything you do up to that point is getting ready for Alaska," he said. "All I really care about for my season is making it in one piece to go film in Alaska. It's pretty important."

The terrain is a lot different than what most people have probably experienced, even people living in the region, Morrison said.

"A lot of people see what they see from town, you know. All I can say is get your butt out there and check it out. It's pretty rad," he said. "We've gotten to see a lot of stuff that I'm sure a lot of Alaskans don't get the opportunity to see out there in the mountains and we're super lucky to be doing that."

Sage Cattabriga-Alosa, another extreme freeskier featured in the new film, said Haines always delivers and the crew had a great time shooting there earlier this year.

"We ended up kind of having a hit list of stuff that we know has delivered in the past," he said. "Every time we go somewhere, even if we've skied it before, there's always new ways down."

The filming crew was also able to find some new routes to ski in the "sick mountains" around Haines that people will get to see in the film, Cattabriga-Alosa said.

"We ended up finding a bunch of new zones that we had overlooked in the past and had never seen," he said. "It's cool to really spend some time in an area because you get to know it that much better."

Although Haines is prominently featured in "Re:session," there are numerous other spots that will get skiers and snowboarders pumped up for the season. TGR sent crews to Colorado, Utah, Montana, Washington and British Columbia, Canada.

The company also spent some time in Italy, where they had a lot of freedom to film, and to Poland, where they found it a bit more challenging, Nielsen said.

"When the team went to Poland it was illegal to ski off the groomed runs and it was some of the deepest snow that that team has ever seen, so they were kind of ducking underneath ropes, sneaking around and skiing this powder," he said. "Obviously there is a huge difference in mentality in those two places."

TGR has produced a ski and snowboard film each year since 1996.

"We weave a loose storyline throughout, and this year with 'Re:session,' we kind of took that in two different directions," Nielsen said. "We kind of start the movie off talking about the recession and how that affects skiers and true ski bums."

The filmmakers also played off the term "session" as it relates to spending time on the slopes and the camaraderie between the athletes and their interaction on the mountains, he said.

The company tries to stay fresh with its films by perfecting the angles from the helicopter shots, using state-of-the-art cameras and keeping up with the advancing techniques, Nielsen said.

"The camerawork and cinematography is super important, so every year we kind of strive to up the ante with that," he said.

TGR also produced a number of Web videos in conjunction with the film called "Almost Live," available for viewing on its Web site. The videos show a behind-the-scenes look at the filming of the new movie and give people a taste of what they can expect to see in "Re:session," Nielsen said.

"It will give you a good flavor of the personality of the athletes as well as the different places that we went," he said.

The film should help get skiers and snowboarders psyched up for this coming season, Cattabriga-Alosa said.

"This year, again, a stellar performance by everybody and again it's high-quality cinematography and high action," he said. "All the segments are very solid and it's super entertaining."

• Contact reporter Eric Morrison at 523-2269 or eric.morrison@juneauempire.com.