Tami Razinger is a professional freeskier based out of Jackson, Wyoming, originally from Vermont. But her family is from Argentina and she has deep ties to the South American country. So the backdrop was set for a perfect, and unique, ski film. Argentina is a popular pilgrimage for big mountain skiers, but for Razinger, it was also a journey back home.
For professional freeskiers, putting out a ski film is a stepping stone necessary to positioning oneself as, well, a professional. Interestingly, Razinger took a slightly different route to do so than solely hucking herself off cliffs and dropping chutes.
While Razinger’s first film is not your typical ski movie, there are still plenty of big mountains, crucial lines, and pow turns to satisfy core skiers. However, instead of shooting solely ski porn, Razinger focused on building a storyline — and embracing her Argentinian roots — with MEZCLADA. The film reads more documentary than ski movie, but is universally applicable to everyone working to make sense of their own identity.
In English, mezclada means mix, the perfect word to describe Razinger’s dual self-identity. Through exploring her relationship with skiing, her family in Argentina and how the cultures of both worlds combined to create Razinger’s unique life story, MEZCLADA is a relatable and inspiring ski movie anyone can apply to their day-to-day life: in or off-season.
So far, MEZCLADA has been a success. On January 13, 2024, at Highpoint cider in Victor, Idaho, Razinger participated in a film night showcasing local talent, with the finale being the premier of MEZCLADA. The film debuted to a hooting, hollering, and packed audience due to the sold-out show. Don’t just take Idaho’s word for it: MEZCLADA received the official selection for the esteemed IF3 Movie Awards, and screened online for IF3 All Girls earlier this month.
MEZCLADA also received an official selection for the Hispanic Heritage Film Festival in Miami. We caught up with Razinger to hear more about making this film, training for big-mountain lines, East Coast skiing, and what the future of the ski industry may hold.
Your family has strong skiing ties. Why did you still feel like an outsider in Argentina and in the ski world in America?
I was born in Argentina. My parents are also both from Argentina and moved to the U.S. when I was around two years old. Eventually, I became a dual citizen when I was eight.
Being an immigrant is a tricky thing because of the isolation felt from being so distanced from family and relatives and your safety web. You start adopting a new way of life, but at the same time you’re upholding traditions from your previous home. It’s a blend of cultures.
While it is an incredibly interesting way to be raised, you start to feel caught in the middle. I felt the accumulation of lost time spent with my relatives and how I would never be able to be as close to them as they are to each other.
While being bilingual, and speaking Spanish at home still to this day, it’s obvious that I use English more. Though I can speak Spanish fluently, there’s always a hint of American in my speech that comes out, and being treated as a tourist instead of a local in a place that I feel so deeply rooted in can be hard.
Through this film, I wanted to openly ask questions of identity like “where is home” and “who am I?” I made this film in a way that anyone struggling with identity in one way or another could relate to being stuck in two worlds, whatever those worlds may be. For me it was the realization that I’m a blend of both worlds. This film is a reminder to listen to your heart and follow your heart because your heart will always lead you to the right place and make you feel at home.
Coming from the East Coast, how did you train for big mountain skiing? Your lines were insane.
My dad was a traveling ski instructor in his twenties. He and my mom taught me how to ski at a young age. Since they both worked at Stratton Resort, I grew up in the seasonal programs there and started ski racing at eight years old. I ski raced through high school at Stratton Mountain School.
In college, at the University of Vermont, I began to transition to freeride skiing by competing in the Ski The East Freeride Tour. My ski racing background allowed me to excel in these competitions which then took me to the Freeride World Tour Qualifiers 4* Tour all over North America. I had some very notable results on the tour, but decided the FWT was not my end goal. I moved to Jackson Hole to make some of the world’s best big mountain ski terrain my backyard playground.
Skiing in the Tetons the last seven years has made me a much more confident big mountain skier. From some of the deepest powder turns of my life to alpine summits and mountaineering objectives and everything in between, Jackson has some of the most incredible terrain I’ve ever seen.
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You’ve chosen to use your talent to highlight issues in the ski world instead of just focusing on yourself as an athlete, and this film was supported by LEKI and Flylow. What did making this film mean to you?
I wanted to create this film for several years and was fine-tuning the idea until I felt like it was ready to go. I had a lot of setbacks with the passion project and realized that without the proper funding, I would not be able to write the story that I wanted so badly to publish.
I’ve been with the majority of ski brands that I represent for the last 8-9 years, but it was difficult to receive the trust that I needed to undergo this project. I finally received some limited funding and set up a GoFundMe to help with the costs of production. I took on more work than I originally planned on, but it was nice to be fully in charge of the storyline and process of filmmaking from start to finish.
I made it a point to choose Karlos Jeri, a Latino filmmaker who shares a similar story, to create this film with me. It was so cool to have the early discussions with him on how we wanted to present these thoughts in a unique way.
It also meant the world to me to highlight the incredible skiing that Argentina has to offer and also spend the extra time with my family, specifically my cousin Niko during the course of this project. It was fun to spend more time with him and reconnect over our family’s history.
Where would you like to see the ski industry and culture go in the next five years if you could simply snap your fingers?
I would love to see more representation in skiing in terms of BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and women. The days of strictly white, male-dominated ski films are over, and I think it’s important for young kids of all backgrounds to have the representation of people that look like them or think like them in ski films. It’s been truly awesome to see a lot more representation pop up in the last couple of years, but of course there’s always progress to be made!
Ski culture and skiing as a sport is tough because of it typically being non-inclusive, hard to break into and expensive. I’m all for after-school programs and financial aid to get kids on skis at a young age and would love for that to continue to grow.
We’ve got to fight to break the skiing stereotype and rewrite the narrative. I think filmmaking is a cool way to do that and showcasing a variety of ski films that cover a wider perspectives will reach different audiences.
What have you learned through this process?
Don’t worry about the norms and tell your story. Be proud of who you are and what you’ve been through. It’s all about the journey.
