Buried: The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche

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.

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.

7.0 stars.

This is a semi-memorable documentary about a really bad avalanche in one of the most avalanche prone resorts in the world. What's the big surprise here? It's obvious that something like this was going to happen in such a hazardous location, and yet, the local "experts" figured they had it under control. It's a sad story of the needless loss innocent lives. These things happened a lot in those days, not so much now 40 years later. We don't see nearly as much of these dangerous occurrences in the United States these days. For some reason our safety awareness has skyrocketed ten-fold since the 80's, yet life expectancy hasn't changed. I find that interesting. This film is very well done. I don't watch a whole lot of documentaries, but got through this one just fine.

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.

I wish documentarians wouldn't use music underneath entire films. I was looking forward to watching this movie and learning about what took place, but I couldn't get through it because the music played the entire time and took away from the dialogue and content. At times the music was almost as loud as the person being interviewed. I've noticed this happening a lot with more recent documentaries. You want people to watch a film, not become distracted by it. I was a freshman in high school when the avalanche took place and remember hearing about it. The film is highly rated, but I couldn't get through it. Hopefully, I'll find another documentary on the same subject without the overbearing music.