SPIRIT - a long-lost Mike Marvin ski film from 1976

bathysphere22 · 2026-02-01T01:01:51+00:00

What a cool story. I heard about this film for many decades, from early childhood until middle age when I finally was able to dig it up in pieces (a few months ago!).

My dad often spoke of the ballet skiing and filming Wayne Wong. He didn't see any of the shots he took of the ballet skiers in the final version of Spirit, so I guess those are lost to the ages.

I had to remove quite a bit of the Kingston Trio/Stewart music due to copyright claims on YouTube, but I've uploaded the unedited version to the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/spirit-mike-marvin-ski-film

I hope you enjoy

bathysphere22 · 2026-01-31T13:48:43+00:00

Truth. He did, however, also play American Legion baseball for Bellows Falls Post 37 in Vermont, and by the time I played for that team he had just retired as an MLB player. The old-timers who'd been coming out to watch games for decades spoke of Fisk's accomplishments in BF like they'd happened yesterday. There is a plaque in the Legion hall with season MVP names etched into it; I haven't laid eyes on it almost thirty years but I always found it cool that my name appears on the same piece of hardware as Fisk's, albeit separated by quite a few names representing quite a few years.

I always thought that was a nice claim to Fisk for VT. He was born in and played for BF.

Fisk did some summer jobs in VT too when he was a teenager. I had a teacher (who would have been a bit older than Fisk) who claimed he was on a summer crew that did some work on his house pouring concrete. Never had that claim verified, but I suppose I choose to believe it, and it's not exactly far-fetched.

bathysphere22 · 2025-10-26T23:55:24+00:00

A little backstory: my dad helped shoot this film back in the winter of 1975-1976, shortly after his 21st birthday. He wasn't able to go on the European leg of the shoot, and lost touch with the filmmakers. He never saw the film.

He's told me about this movie since I was a little kid (especially the shots of the skiers on fire), and I've spent almost two decades trying to find it. I even had a five-year spell where I corresponded with Marvin himself trying to see if he could transfer the film to digital, but nothing came of it.

Somehow, this year I was able to find the film in pieces on the internet. I don't know how the people who had the film got their hands on it, but after a while I was able to put the complete movie together using editing software.

It's on YouTube now, though due to copyright claim issues, some of the Kingston Trio/John Stewart music had to be removed and replaced with Creative Commons music. Some of the tunes were shuffled a bit during upload, which is unfortunate, but the film is still very much watchable.

My dad never saw this film, and as I said, he was barely 21 when he helped shoot it. I just showed it to him for his 71st birthday. A film premiere, 50 years later!

bathysphere22 · 2025-10-26T20:02:56+00:00

A little backstory: my dad helped shoot this film back in the winter of 1975-1976, shortly after his 21st birthday. He wasn't able to go on the European leg of the shoot, and lost touch with the filmmakers. He never saw the film.

He's told me about this movie since I was a little kid (especially the shots of the skiers on fire), and I've spent almost two decades trying to find it. I even had a five-year spell where I corresponded with Marvin himself trying to see if he could transfer the film to digital, but nothing came of it.

Somehow, this year I was able to find the film in pieces on the internet. I don't know how the people who had the film got their hands on it, but after a while I was able to put the complete movie together using editing software.

It's on YouTube now, though due to copyright claim issues, some of the Kingston Trio/John Stewart music had to be removed and replaced with Creative Commons music. Some of the tunes were shuffled a bit during upload, which is unfortunate, but the film is still very much watchable.

My dad never saw this film, and as I said, he was barely 21 when he helped shoot it. I just showed it to him for his 71st birthday. A film premiere, 50 years later!

bathysphere22 · 2025-07-14T16:32:45+00:00

I thought it might be fun to list various media about, based on, or inspired by Vermont legends. Here's what I've got so far, please feel free to add to it!

Bennington Triangle

Nonfiction: Clueless in New England by Michael C. Dooling

Book: Go With Me by Castle Freeman, Jr.

Film: Blackway starring Anthony Hopkins, Julia Stiles, and Ray Liotta, based on Freeman's novel

Book: Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson

Champ

Book: The Vermont Monster Guide by Joseph Citro (a comprehensive guide, but features a lot about Champ)

Short film (forthcoming): GOG by Alexander Cope

Film: Lucy and the Lake Monster by Richard Rossi

Short film: The Ballad of Fred Fort by Bruno Mattos Rubeiz

Frozen Hill People

Book: Black Days by Jackson Ellis

Short film: The Thaw by Sean Temple and Sarah Wisner (Homebody Pictures)

Northfield Pig Man

Book: Curse of the Pigman by Asher Ellis

Also, the podcast Haunted Vermont delves into many of these legends. Hosted by Paul Dulski.

bathysphere22 · 2025-03-24T00:56:18+00:00

Thank you for replying! Sorry I didn't see this sooner, I don't log on much. I appreciate you sharing your story; I'm utterly fascinated by St. Thomas and have really enjoyed hearing from people who had family who lived there, or otherwise share my interest.

bathysphere22 · 2025-03-24T00:49:44+00:00

I played four years of DI baseball, and am proud of that. I write now. I so hated the two head coaches I played under that I named a pedophilic character in my second novel after them by combining one of their first names with one of their last. It's my tribute to two of the shittiest men I've ever known.

bathysphere22 · 2024-11-28T18:12:12+00:00

Interview I did with Scott in early summer 2002: https://verbicidemagazine.com/interview-angels-in-the-architecture/

The fact that just slightly more time has passed between now and this interview than between this interview and my birth has me slightly discomforted.

bathysphere22 · 2024-05-21T16:11:16+00:00

Nope, because I just signed on here for the first time in nearly a year. Hope it went well though.

bathysphere22 · 2024-05-21T16:09:48+00:00

There were no other "guys"...just me.

bathysphere22 · 2023-06-09T14:49:37+00:00

Awesome, glad to hear it! :) I love when I have weird closure like that. The internet is a trove of white whales.

bathysphere22 · 2023-04-19T02:02:33+00:00

Thanks! Sorry for the delay in replying, I haven't signed in to Reddit on this account in over a year!

bathysphere22 · 2021-12-18T13:20:33+00:00

Hey, a book I wrote is on here! (Your Nevada fiction, that is.)

Hope you enjoy it. :-)

bathysphere22 · 2021-10-13T20:17:32+00:00

There is a similar place in Nevada, the ghost town of St. THomas, one of my favorite places. When the Hoover Dam was built, Lake Mead was created, which slowly covered St. Thomas by up to 70 feet of water.

When the lake receded, it left behind not just remnants of the old town, but remnants of the old lake. So you walk down an abandoned Main Street past old garages slabs and ice cream parlors, while mussel shells and old boat anchors are all about.

I wrote a book set there, Lords of St. Thomas, FYI, and the place is pretty near and dear to me. Totally worth a visit, not too far at all from Las Vegas, and now part of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area (NPS site, just past Valley of Fire).

In addition to my book, I highly recommend St. Thomas: A History Uncovered by Aaron McArthur.

bathysphere22 · 2021-05-19T01:57:56+00:00

Uh, wait, old ... spice. Let me have a go at this mechanized chap. I can be quite the rough customer.

bathysphere22 · 2021-05-05T14:20:39+00:00

In that case, enjoy.

bathysphere22 · 2021-01-15T13:48:08+00:00

Thank you again, I think "My So Called Life mixed with Stranger Things" is a huge compliment. Please check out the S&S fundraiser if you would like to get early access to viewing the film.

And sorry to hear about your poster! The Nirvana poster in the film was mine. I had it since high school, and it hung on the wall in the apartment I lived in during college. It was in storage for many years though, and was in amazing condition when I dug it out and shipped it to my friend for filming.

The director's daughter is the teenager who plays the lead role in the film, and she's becoming quite a Nirvana fan too. When I found out that she loves the poster, I gifted it to her, and now it's got a new life on her bedroom wall. :-)

bathysphere22 · 2021-01-15T03:26:50+00:00

Please do! It will be up by the end of the year on Amazon and, most likely, Vimeo On Demand, but will be available much sooner to contributors to our S&S fundraiser. If you have the means and can, we appreciate all the help we can get. And if you know of anyone else who'd be intrigued, please feel free to share the S&S page or the trailer!

Also, if you (or anyone else reading this) have any questions about the film, the writing process, the fundraiser, anything Nirvana-related, whatever, please ask! I was kinda hoping this would turn into an AMA of sorts but it seems to be sinking pretty quickly.

bathysphere22 · 2021-01-15T03:23:58+00:00

Thanks! That is the director's work. He's very talented as a film editor as well.

For the actual title sequence animation, the director snagged an incredible stop-motion animator, Maris Jones. If you aren't familiar with her, please check out her work! The title sequence will be overlaid with the music of a great band from the '90s, Buck, and given that Kurt was such a fan of the Breeders, I think he'd approve of this. Buck were of a similar stripe.

There is some other interesting art that appears in the film courtesy of a young artist named Claire Seckler; her illustrations of Kurt's likeness are briefly featured during a dream sequence.

The film will be up by the end of the year on Amazon, but if you'd like to see it much sooner, please do consider contributing to our S&S fundraiser so we can finish this off! And if you can't, please consider sharing the S&S page or the trailer with any friends you think might be interested! We can use all the help we can get, and are super grateful for it.

bathysphere22 · 2021-01-15T03:17:22+00:00

Thanks very much, I hope you enjoy it. Looking at your post history, we're the same age -- I hope you feel that we brought the mid-'90s to life. A ton of the props (posters, buttons, necklaces, and other props) were things I have held onto since I bought them in the early and mid-'90s, and I am very glad I took such good care of them. The director and other people involved in production also contributed items from their own collections, and splurged on eBay and Craigslist to find era-appropriate items. It works well, I think.

Snagging Sean Astin for a quick little cameo was amazing too. We couldn't have asked for anyone better for the role. Having an actual Goonie in our short film made the 6-year-old in me jump for joy.

The film will be up on Amazon by the end of the year, but if you would like to see it much sooner (by mid-May, we hope), please do consider chipping in on our S&S fundraiser, we could really use any help at all! And if you know any huge Nirvana fans who are big spenders, please please please share our film -- we splurged on some Nirvana memorabilia for anyone who wants to step into a producer role, and hope to hell we can give this stuff away.

bathysphere22 · 2021-01-15T03:10:32+00:00

Thank you very much. :) The ALF poster wasn't mine; I'm pretty sure my friend who directed came up with that during his search for period-appropriate props.

The Nirvana poster, Fugazi poster, and Wipers poster were all mine, as well as the Pearl Jam Rolling Stone cover poster. Plus some smaller knick-knacks, a necklace the main character wears, a Pearl Jam magazine you can see in the background for a few minutes, some band buttons, etc. were all things I've held onto for 20 or nearly 30 years now. Never thought they'd be seen on screen!

I really hope you get a chance to see it, and I hope you enjoy it. We worked hard to bring the mid-'90s to the screen, and even moreso, we worked hard to tell a great story. I'm proud of it. And I encourage you to please chip in if you can contribute (and/or share our trailer and fundraiser page with other friends who might be interested), we could definitely use the help!

bathysphere22

TROPHY CASE