OF A LIFETIME | The North Face
2024 · 44 min · Documentary · The North Face
Of a Lifetime follows the De Le Rue family — Xavier, Victor and 18‑year‑old Mila — as they sail across the Drake Passage to Antarctica and ride steep, icy lines on the polar coastline. Directed and edited by Jérôme Tanon, with cinematography from Guido Perrini, Christoph Thoresen and Tanon, the film mixes on‑slope sequences with personal diary footage as Mila is introduced to big‑mountain freeriding. The documentary records the logistics and weather windowing required to access remote Antarctic slopes and captures the family dynamic that structures the trip. The film is valuable as a record of big‑mountain snowboarding in a seldom‑filmed setting rather than for competitive achievements: its interest lies in the combination of remote navigation, objective hazard awareness, and the passing of technical and psychological experience between generations. For viewers who follow mountain sports, the film offers concrete glimpses of polar conditions, expedition planning across the Drake Passage, and the way risk and mentorship shape a novice rider’s progression.
Review
A snowboarding film on a climbing site, and I include it because the mountain logic is the same. The De Le Rue family, Xavier, Victor and eighteen-year-old Mila, sail across the Drake Passage to Antarctica and ride steep, icy lines on the polar coast. Jérôme Tanon directs and edits, with cinematography from Guido Perrini, Christoph Thoresen and Tanon.
This is for people who follow mountain sports broadly and want a seldom-filmed setting: remote navigation, weather windows, objective hazard, and the passing of experience between generations. Mila's introduction to big-mountain freeriding is the real subject, and the diary footage makes it personal. Skip it if you came for climbing. There is none, and the film does not pretend otherwise.
What works is the Drake Passage. The crossing is treated as the first objective, and the film is honest about how much of an Antarctic trip is spent waiting for the slope to be safe. What it gets wrong is that forty-four minutes of a family dynamic can feel like a home movie with a budget.
The North Face Presents: Earthside is the closest film on the site: Baffin Island, first descents on skis alongside big wall climbing, and a group whose relationships are the point. Earthside is a climbing film that skis. Of a Lifetime is a snowboarding film that sails. Both belong to the same idea of what mountains are for.
