What do you get when you rig up a pack of Colorado front range desk jockies/free heel skiers with digital cameras and some good music? TotallyTele, of course. This year’s film, Uncouth, premiers this Saturday at the Newton Street Studios (Carl and Leah’s garage on Logan street), compiling the best shots of the 2003/2004 season. Think Warren Miller with a strong backcountry ethic and a good many inside jokes. It’s Carl of the Congo’s best work yet, based on the short preview I had when Kristine and I paid a visit to the new headquarters.

I held the camera for a few shots that I think make the film, and this year I managed to get my fair share of frames in the final cut. I did it the quick and dirty way when I took a late season spill on the north face of Torreys Peak and rolled through a rockpile. The camera loves pain. The rest of the crew dubbed the run “Bill’s Left Arm” after the mangled appendage that I sustained. A few scars remain, and I lost a few hundred dollars worth of gear, but that’s nothing compared to the drubbing my ego will take this Saturday night when all of my friends and cohorts get to see my erratic edgework and its aftermath in slow motion and from two separate camera angles projected on the side of a Wash Park carriage house. Better clear the way for the keg.

I leave North America nine days after the priemier on October 11. I will certainly miss the Colorado ski season, but I’ve shipped two varieties of free heel skis to myself at McMurdo station, so look for TotallyTele to go international next year with Antarctic footage from New Jirsa Bill.