Buried: The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche

The necessary elements for an outstanding movie are the same whether for a documentary or feature film.:

1] Compelling story and script.

2]. Performance quality that is genuine with unmistakable emotional content that resonates with and enlivens the emotional experience of viewers.

3]. Cinematography that effectively supports as well as enhances the visual story-telling process.

It is my opinion that "Buried" embodies the highest qualities of each of these elements and clearly demonstrates that it's creators possess a mastery of the visual story-telling art. It would be impossible to produce a documentary of this quality without a remarkable commitment of time and compassion. Interviewees rarely share their hearts as openly as those in this film without a substantial level of trust and comfort. Although based on the consequences of a natural disaster there is a consistently uplifting theme of heartfelt humanity throughout. The film also successfully highlights the necessity for avalanche awareness as well as the need for improved prediction and snow management practices.

Bravo to director/producers Steven Siig and Jared Drake for this monumental achievement.

This documentary tells the story of the 1982 Alpine Meadows avalanche and the rescue effort that followed. The series of storms that led up to the event and continued to dump snow after the avalanche was epic. Most day skiers are not aware of the danger and the huge effort ski area employees make to lessen the danger. Ski patrollers go out in insane conditions with explosives that they toss to trigger the snow packed slopes and produce slides.

The film has won multiple awards on the festival circuit including best documentary at Bend and Austin film festivals. Directors Drake and Siig have done a great job sharing this story.

This documentary is one of the best that I have ever watched. I remember this event well as I was learning to ski at Heavenly Valley Ski Resort during this terrible storm. Such a perfect storm was created from the weather, the snow conditions, etc. While watching this moving doc, I chuckled, I had tears in my eyes, and I learned a lot about snow and weather and what can create these types of conditions that led to this tragic event. I also really enjoyed the interviews with the surviving people that were in charge at Alpine Meadows that terrible day. Well filmed, well documented, and the subject matter was handled beautifully with grace, homage, and dignity given where deserved. This needs to be nominated for the Best Documentary category!

It's kind of wired felling that watching this documentary when I am working for this resort. And the day I watched this is also the day they close the both resort due to high risk of avalanche. So I stay at home and review this said history. It's not as said as I thought, but it remind me should respect our mother nature more next time when I go to Alpine. Ski or working... The whole documantary has many many interview with the person who experience this accident and many valuable materials. It really helps me understand more about avalanche control and many other knowledge about snow and mountains.

As someone who isn't a skier, but is active in outdoor recreation (I'd rather snowshoe), and lives in the mountains of Colorado, I was keenly interested in this movie when I saw the description. I was hoping for something great, and it is indeed great.

Told from the perspective of the people involved, and with no third person narration, this story unfolds with the events leading up to, and after, the avalanche.

You get an idea of what the people were like at the time, how much they've grown since then, and how much this affected them. They are at times very emotional, but always with a sense of honesty. They were mostly people (around my age, as far as I can tell) who were having a good time being ski bums, when tragedy struck. How they dealt with the tragedy is the main thrust of the story, and it is told with brutal forthrightness.

Even if skiing or winter recreation isn't your thing, this is still a movie to watch.