Triumph of the Chill

It was a great Canadian weekend for obvious reasons. But in-between puck drops, I had the pleasure of viewing a 46-minute documentary on a perhaps lesser-known Canadian athlete of sorts: The Snowking.

Documenting the rise and production of the annual Snowking Winter Festival in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Triumph of the Chill follows Tony (the Snowking) and his loyal band of "sno-ldiers" as they build the festival's venue and pièce de résistance: a giant castle made entirely out of snow and ice.

Now in its 15th year, the Snowking Winter Festival is a month-long festival in March that features fireworks, art exhibitions, theatre performances, nighttime concerts, and a hockey tournament.

It's quite interesting to see how the massive castle is built and the film's Rick Mercer/Fubar-esque humour is nicely balanced with great sequences of the Snowking crew hard at work. But the icing on the...erm, 'ice' is the film's soundtrack: featuring local Northwest Territories musicians, tracks range from folk tunes to hip hop rhymes ("home of the ice road truckers/40 below lovers"). Even the Snowking himself sings a little ditty.

I only got my paws on Triumph of the Chill because one of my sisters lives in Yellowknife and she mailed out a copy, but who knows where the flick will end up in a few years. Great film -- I wish it much success.

Although it doesn't do the film justice, here's the trailer for Triumph of the Chill [I'm assuming it was originally titled Stay Cool]:

Stay cool, Canada.