One Step Ahead

Dreams become visions, and a plan transforms a dream into a goal. But how do you get started and leave your comfort zone?
After the long months of stand still, the Mountain Tribe Crew has a big goal, and builts a longterm plan towards it. How can you reach your goal and what do you need to learn? Which capabilities do you need to amp it up?
With a skiguide joining the crew in the tyrolean Alps, it quickly turns out that beside a range of alpine techniques, the specific personalities and the interaction in the crew will be the biggest challenge.
Alpinistic progression also means turning away from the easy thrill of pow laps in the ski resort, but rather aim for new paths and some uncertainty if you will reach the summit.
Learning something opens up new perspectives, things which seemed impossible suddenly seem within reach.
But is that a sufficient motivation?

  • Flo Gassner
    Director
  • Paul Schweller
    Director
  • Flo Gassner
    Producer
  • Vali Werner-Tutschku
    Producer
  • Flo Gassner
    Key Cast
  • Valentin Werner-Tutschku
    Key Cast
  • Martin Kogler
    Key Cast
  • Lukas Mühlmann
    Key Cast
  • Jochen Pummel Reiser
    Key Cast
  • Manuela Mandl
    Key Cast
  • Paul Schweller
    Cinematography
  • Flo Gassner
    Cinematography
  • Moritz Ablinger
    Still Photography
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short, Student
  • Genres:
    Sport, Mountain, Skiing, Adventure, Alpinism, Freeride
  • Runtime:
    9 minutes 27 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    August 15, 2021
  • Country of Origin:
    Austria
  • Country of Filming:
    Austria
  • Language:
    German
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital 4K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    21:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Flo Gassner, Paul Schweller

Paul Schweller is a 20-year-old Filmmaker from Munich. He found his passion for filmmaking already back in school. After school he was the cinematographer for the film company moviejam. Together they produced four long documentaries about several topics like mental health and values in the society. In 2017 he met Flo Gassner, who became the producer and co-director of Paul in three freeride ski movies. Their latest ski film “metanoia” was selected by various film festivals around the world and won three awards to date. (eg. “Best film in Snow Sports” at Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival 2020).

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

The film One Step Ahead was shot in several locations in Tyrol over the whole winter season. A big Snow Safety part was captured in Fieberbrunn in February and for the high alpine/Glacier safety part we went to the Pitztal glacier in April. A few ski action adventures were filmed all over Tyrol for exemple Stubai or Seefeld.
Due to covid restrictions we shot the movie in multiple short filming sessions over the whole season other than the past films with one big filming trip. We ended up with so much more footage to choose from in the editing, which didn´t make it easier for us. On the contrary the post-production phase took us twice as long as last year. We were cautious on which shots to take and how to tell the story because we didn´t want to make the film to specific about technical alpine training. The message of the film should apply for every viewer, not only alpinists.
I think it´s important for everyone to get out of their comfort zone and try new things, maybe things they wanted to try for a long time and never had the chance to try or didn´t take the last step to finally do that.
The experience of trying new things was super fun for us this season. The first time winter camping, seeing and feeling sunrises in the mountains and just having a great time learning together in our group is combined and summarized in this film.