Brittan Morris thought his speed on a hockey rink would make him good at ice cross. Then he arrived at his first race and kept falling. Growing up skating on smooth indoor ice in Austin had given him one kind of experience. A downhill course with rough ice, turns, and jumps asked for something different.
He tells Tab how he found the sport after repeated shoulder injuries brought his competitive hockey years to an end. Ice cross gave him another way to keep skating, along with a new set of skills to learn. He describes how his approach to training changed as he understood more about the demands of racing and staying ready through a physical season.
Tab shares his own history with hockey, and the two follow a love of speed into the experience of watching a race. Brittan wants more people to see what the sport feels like from close to the ice. That ambition eventually became a documentary project, made with his business partner, DJ, and a small team.
They had never made a film before. Brittan describes raising a modest budget, traveling in a van, assembling a camera crew, and collecting footage through a racing season. They expected to produce the project with others handling more of the filmmaking. As it developed, they found themselves taking on more of the work.
An acceptance into Mammoth Film Festival gave them a deadline before the film was finished. Brittan was away racing while he and his partner worked with their editor to complete a version ready for a theater. He remembers the relief of getting it there and meeting filmmakers who were interested in how they had made it happen.
The camera work mattered because he wanted viewers to feel the speed he knew as a racer. Cameras on athletes and people filming close to the boards could bring an audience into places a distant broadcast might miss. He had discovered a sport he wanted to keep doing. Making the film gave him a way to take other people onto the course with him.
