I was somewhere between the glowing skeleton LED suits and a jazz trio when the mushrooms kicked in. Around me, people buzzed excitedly, staring at Chris Benchetler’s trippy paintings and art displays, chatting about the innovation and insanity that went into the film we were all about to watch. Celebrities like pro skier Michelle Parker, pro surfer Rob Machado, and pro mycologist Paul Stamets milled about.
It was a who’s who of action sports, psychedelic mushrooms, and the Grateful Dead. Benchetler’s new film, Mountains of the Moon, had brought us all to Santa Monica, Calif., for the world premiere of what the mad artist and renowned skier described to me as “a very abstract art project.”
In it, athletes clad in LED skeleton suits designed by Arc’teryx ski, climb, mountain bike, and surf in neon-lit, laser-crossed, nocturnal landscapes exploding with color and motion — to the soundtrack of the Grateful Dead. Paul Stamets narrates the film, and Mickey Hart, the long-time drummer for the Dead, even plays in the film and scored part of it himself.
I previously wrote about the making of this film for GearJunkie — but I hadn’t seen it yet. No one really had. Even some of the athletes I spoke with told me that this was the first time they were seeing the movie in full.
Everyone was jazzed. In particular, I was feeling fresh and ready for the fireworks that were about to unfold. What better excuse to indulge in a few microdoses and let the going get weird? Prepared as I was, I still had no idea what I was in for.
Around 6 p.m., when everyone had thoroughly explored the immersive art experience Benchetler built around this premiere, the jazz trio stopped playing. Everyone eagerly took their seats. It was time. After more than a decade of dreaming, planning, prepping, and executing the impossible, Benchetler was ready to show the world Mountains of the Moon.
The lights dimmed, and then a kaleidoscope opened up and swallowed the audience whole.
Mountains of the Moon: A New Type of Action Sports Film
These days, many action sports films tend to follow a similar formula. They have athlete interviews, brief narrative interludes, and then sick shred or ride segments, and repeat. It’s a proven recipe, but one we’ve all tasted a thousand times.
Mountains of the Moon shatters that mold. This is an abstract love letter to nature, sports, and the Grateful Dead. The only voice you hear throughout the entire film is that of Stamets, opining on the interconnectivity of our universe, our lives, and the mycelial strings that tie it all together.
The skeletal athletes perform wordlessly, painting with inertia, creating kinetic visual art, splashing, crawling, gliding with liquid light.
I feel safe calling Mountains of the Moon a new genre of action sports film.
When the movie was over, Benchetler took the stage with Stamets, Parker, and Alannah Yip (who climbed in the film) for a Q&A. I’ll never forget the pride radiating off of Benchetler in that moment. Or was it joy? I couldn’t really parse the difference at 30 feet, warped as my senses were, and still vibrating from the vortex of music and color I’d just emerged from.
Whatever the right noun was, Benchetler was beaming and clearly basking in the happy afterglow of success.
The party was still going when I left the venue. My night, however, was far from over.
Through the Looking Glass: Reflections & High Water Marks
After the show, I drifted to a dimly lit speakeasy under the nearly 100-year-old Georgian Hotel. Whiskey flowed to the tune of a lone pianist, and time stretched, past last call and beyond. When the bar finally kicked me out, I was still buzzing. My legs carried me with a life of their own down to the beach near the Santa Monica pier.
It was 12:30 a.m. Staring into the glistening waves reflecting the neon lights of the pier’s Ferris wheel and rides, I finally had a moment to do some reflecting of my own.
What Benchetler created had left a deep impression. This night felt like a breath of fresh air. The depth of artistic thought Benchetler put into every scene, and the combined effort of the crew, athletes, and brands, was astounding.
So many people had come together and worked so hard to bring Benchetler’s wild idea to life. His village had rallied around him. They fell through a portal and into Benchetler’s dream, becoming a part of it themselves. And together, they marched that vision out of fantasy and into reality, alongside their fearless Sergeant Pepper.
This movie gave me hope. Action sports films are in need of a refresh. Ideas, styles, formats, and formulas are repeated so often that one year’s films and movies blend right into the next. Few stick in your mind like Mountains of the Moon was stuck in mine.
Benchetler took a massive swing with this movie. In my opinion, he knocked it out of the park. Not because he managed to get the Grateful Dead involved, or because he figured out how to psychedelify an ocean wave or mountain slope, but because this movie is different. It quite literally colors outside the lines, inverts the light and the dark, and opens up a world of possibilities for future filmmakers.
If we’re lucky, Mountains of the Moon might be the first highwater mark of an incoming tide, a wave of new ideas and concepts for an entire genre.
I’m not even a real fan of the Grateful Dead (sorry to admit) — and yet, I realized watching the pier lights dance on the ocean surf that this might have been my favorite action sports movie of the decade.
By 1 a.m., my early morning flight was looming like a dark cloud on the horizon. With sandy feet, I returned to the Georgian and crawled into bed with trails of neon skeletons still dancing in my head.
Where to Watch It Yourself
The Meow Wolf–like Santa Monica Mountains of the Moon art experience is open to the public now through Nov. 23. There, you can check out the incredible skeleton suits Arc’teryx designed in person, see the artwork Benchetler visualized the film with, and watch the movie for yourself.
Then, Mountains of the Moon hits the road and may visit a city near you. The immersive viewing will head to Tahoe, Calif., on Jan. 8, Denver on Jan. 15, Salt Lake City on Jan. 22, and Whistler, British Columbia, on Feb. 7. For the full list of screenings and to reserve your spot, check out Benchetler’s Mountains of the Moon webpage.
You can also catch Mountains of the Moon on the film festival circuit, starting with Cinemacity on Dec. 3. The film will finally be released on YouTube after it’s done touring, sometime in 2026. Then, you can witness this psychedelic Grateful Dead action sports abstract magnum opus from the comfort of your home.
Read the full article here
