Burn Pile – A Conversation with Joey Kraft

Created, filmed, and edited by Joey Kraft, Burn Pile continues his three-year streak of homegrown ski films. This year’s project didn’t start with a storyboard; instead, it grew from whoever showed up, whatever the snow gave them, and a simple approach: have fun and see what happens. The result is a loose, energetic film that captures what skiing feels like when you strip it back to the basics of friendship, throwing down, and a bit of clowning around.

We sat down with Joey to talk about how Burn Pile came together, what makes this crew unique, and why this project might be the most meaningful one yet.

Joey Kraft: Yeah, Burn Pile is our third year-long project following Water the Plants in 2023 and The Harvest in 2024. It’s a tough one to describe. We didn’t really have too much of a direction for this project; it’s kind of just a big mix of all the footage from this year.

As far as who was a part of this project, it was basically just all of our friends. The main riders were Will Fossum, Shonny Charbonneau, Jake Sandstrom, Tristan Underhill, Benny Smith, and Ethan Swadburg, but we didn’t really have set people to film with; it ended up just being whoever showed up.

Like one day I was hanging out with Jacob Belanger, Jonathan Rollins, and Meg Cumming, and we decided to go build a jump off a dock and hit it on snow blades because we were bored in the fall; and that ended up being the opener. So yeah, we have a lot of cameos from friends in this one.

I’d describe the energy or identity as kind of chaotic and a bit all over the place, but pretty true to our friend group. We all like getting out and doing fun, rowdy stuff, and I just wanted to document that because it’s so much fun being out there with all those people.

Joey: The shift came from not having the same group we had in years prior. Some people were really making a push to make a career out of skiing, and they kind of graduated and moved on to other stuff. You can still find them in the project and we’re still doing the same thing, but it shifted from focusing purely on skiing to making it more about the people and the friends; along with the skiing. It became more about what the experience is actually like for us.

Joey: Yeah, it was different. I kind of felt like it might be my last solo year-long project, so we decided to go off script and really run with whatever we felt like doing. It’s chaotic and hectic, but that’s how things naturally unfolded and it was super fun. Creatively there wasn’t much pressure, and personally I’d say putting people’s personalities into it more was definitely the most rewarding part.

Joey: I’ve always been a huge fan of my friends’ skiing and loved filming with them and being able to show what they can do. Something unique about the crew is the variety of people.

We’ve got Tristan Underhill, a super-dialed skier/mountaineer who skis insane lines and does crazy alpine climbing; Shonny and Will hitting street; Jake, Benny, and Ethan hitting backcountry jumps; and our sledless friends shredding the resort and getting doubled out to try the backcountry.

It’s cool having a bit of everything and not feeling like I’m filming completely different groups of people.

Joey: One thing that comes to mind is when we were at the World Ski & Snowboard Festival for the Intersection video contest. We didn’t end up winning, we came in second. But when we got up on stage for the check, everyone in the crew went crazy. Dumping beers on their heads, picking me up, just going wild.

One of the event staff said something like, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone celebrate second place that hard.” It wasn’t that we didn’t care about winning; it’s just that when we all get together nothing’s taken too seriously and we’re just down to hang out and have a good time. There’s something about that crew.

Joey: Other than most people working full-time jobs, probably the conditions. We’ve had bad years for a while now, and you can see it in the footage; punchy landings, wet heavy snow, flat landings. At one point we built a jump where the landing was so harsh that everyone stopped hitting it and wanted to shave the lip.

But one guy, Jake Sandstrom, wanted one more hit. He went up, sent a massive rodeo 7, muscled the landing, and everyone went insane. It was awesome. Hopefully this year blesses us with better conditions.

Joey: Honestly, I had no idea what this project was going to look like. I knew I wanted it to be fun and have personality, and in the end I kind of had to throw it together a bit rushed because of other work; but I think that goes with the spirit of it being chaotic and all over the place. It feels true to us.

Joey: Some of my favorite moments were getting the people we don’t usually film out there with us; getting them on camera, having them hit jumps, being part of it. There are people I used to ride with every day, but work and life means we don’t see each other as much.

Filming for Intersection let us ski together again like the old days when we first moved to Whistler, but also with all the new friends we’ve made along the way.

Joey: Jack was the best. He took me in when I first moved to Whistler at 17 and was always excited about everything, making whatever you were doing so much fun. You’d run into him on the hill and go from an average day to the best time.

It’s been a goal to carry that on; the way he made life fun and didn’t take things too seriously. I won’t ever replicate it the way he did, but I try to keep it in mind when making stuff like this. I think he’d be fired up on this video and the crew.

Joey: In previous films we kept the focus on the skiing. This time I wanted to also focus on the actual experience of being out there with these people and what that’s like. That’s pretty much it.

Joey: We got most of the stuff in there, but if anything’s missing it’d be more BTS of everyone interacting; filmers and skiers. Everyone’s such a character. But overall, I’m happy with it.

Joey: The idea was to set up Will to be really dumb throughout the whole thing, and then have him deliver this big serious monologue at the end. We couldn’t include a lot of the other dumb moments because of the Intersection time limit, so it came off a bit random.

But yeah; I feel like everyone knows where the industry’s at these days. It’d be great if more focus could shift back to the core of skiing through events, contests, and video projects. But we weren’t trying to make a huge statement. It was more about saying something funny with big words to throw in a twist. Will muscled through those big words eventually.

Joey: I don’t know if there’s anything specific to take away. I just wanted people to have a fun time watching it and feel excited to go skiing and hang out with friends.

Joey: Nothing super specific, but if anything, I’d say things don’t need to be the best or perfect. They can just be real to where you and your crew are at. I think that’ll feel a lot more fulfilling when you watch it back years later.

Joey: If I had to describe it in one word, it would be joy. I have the most fun hanging out with these people and doing this stuff. It brings me a lot of happiness to be around them; and it just so happened we made a movie while doing it.

Check out the full film at the link below; Burn Pile is best experienced, not explained.