Thursday night in Breckenridge brought about the second annual Dew Tour Recognize: Film event. With the event opened up to the public this year, industry members and shred-happy locals alike packed the Riverwalk Center for a night of amazing footage.

The event highlighted the groundbreaking work done by some of the production crews at the forefront of snowboarding and freeskiing filmmaking. Six crews put together an exclusive edit for the event, each running about 5 minutes in length on average, and the footage in each edit was taken from that crew’s recent film.

Many different styles were on display throughout the night. Some companies went with the tried-and-true method of delivering nonstop action. From the creative progression showcased in Think Thank’s “Brain Dead Heart Attack” edit to the pure adrenaline rush of watching backcountry riding in Absinthe Film’s “Dopamine” and Standard Film’s “2112,” the action was enough to stoke out every snowboarder in attendance.

Level 1 Productions, the winner of last year’s Viewer’s Choice Award, showed off an action-packed freeskiing edit of their own. A testament to just how incredible their latest film “Partly Cloudy” is, Level 1 was able to create a new edit for Dew Tour Recognize mostly comprised of clips that didn’t make the film, and it still featured plenty of bangers.

Other film crews chose to tell more of a story in their edits. From “Tracing Skylines,” Poor Boyz Productions highlighted a trip to Detroit where a group of skiers labored to create a sessionable jump in the midst of urban decay without the help of any natural snow.

Dylan Malone with Poor Boyz explained how the concept came about. “We started planning it a couple years ago, and we wanted to make a movie about doing the most epic ski trip,” he said. “So we thought about where has no one ever taken a street or urban crew. We said Detroit – it’s the backbone of America, so we wanted to check it out. The auto industry was in decline at the time and we wanted to bring some noise to the city. Once we actually got there, it was a lot more rugged than we thought it would be. We made it work, and it turned out pretty awesome.”

One of the most powerful stories was told without any words when Stept Productions played Shea Flynn’s segment from “Mutiny.” Depicting the hard crashes that Flynn went through in filming the segment and the subsequent surgery he endured, the video part really showed the viewers the sacrifices that go into making these films. The transition between ski scenes and hospital scenes creates a sense of uneasiness in the viewer, but that’s also what makes it so undeniably captivating.

“We thought it would be cool to bring a controversial and favorited piece to the audience of Breck,” said Nick Martini, pro skier and co-founder of Stept. “Shea’s a local kid, so a lot of the people here hopefully knew him and could appreciate his story. It’s a little raw, but I hope people enjoyed it.”

The film side of the snowboarding and freeskiing industries often finds itself siloed from the contest circuit, but Dew Tour Recognize presented an opportunity to merge the two worlds, both of which are important to their sports.

Having previously competed at past Dew Tour stops and other events, Martini has spent time in both worlds and sees the mutual benefits that they provide each other. “In the long run, everyone is gonna benefit,” he said. “I really like what the comps side does to expose our sport, get young kids into the industry and give them an opportunity to come up and get known. They work well together.”

Also present were several brands involved with video projects of their own. Fresh off a 4th place finish in the superpipe qualifier, Danny Davis was onhand to introduce a teaser for Mountain Dew’s new “Peace Park” feature that’s dropping soon, iON Camera presented a behind-the-scenes look at Thierry Donard’s “Imagine,” and Nike played a clip from their new video “Never Not”, which was released online earlier this season to rave reviews.

If you missed Dew Tour Recognize, the good news is that you can watch the exclusive edits from all six film companies online on the Dew Tour facebook page. While you’re there, be sure to vote for your favorite clip to help one of these crews take home a cash prize for the Viewer’s Choice Award.