Warren Miller just follows the snow

American film-maker Warren Miller has become as much a part of the ski season as snow.

Fifty years ago Miller discovered a great way to be a fulltime ski bum. He borrowed a 16mm camera, made a film called Deep and Light at Squaw Valley, California, then travelled the country showing his film to skiers impatiently waiting for the next season to begin.

Miller has refined his technique. He now has his own camera and makes a film each year, narrating each year with his inimitable brand of dry humour.

"For the past 50 years is has been snowing somewhere," is a typical Millerism.

Miller's latest effort, called Fifty, is full of new footage of skiers and snowboarders doing their thing from Alaska to Cotopaxi in Ecuador and clips from previous films.

There are plenty of gravity-defying jumps, leaps, crashes and, of course, Miller's eye for the zany.

Home video shows have nothing on Miller's ability to catch skiers' making fools of themselves.

* Fifty screens in Auckland from June 15 to 21.