Trust me when I say there aren’t a lot of ski movies out there that showcase moms getting rad. This is one of the reasons why “Here, Hold My Kid”—a new comedic short from pro skiers Elyse Saugstad and Jackie Paaso—is so refreshing. The trailer for the 39-minute-long film is out now, and the movie will be making its festival premiere at the High Five Festival on October 1 in Annecy, France.
Starring and produced by veteran big-mountain skiers and former Freeride World Tour competitors Saugstad and Paaso, the film follows the two athletes as they cart their one-year-old sons to three legendary locations—Tahoe, Alaska, and Andermatt, Switzerland—and attempt to create a contract-winning ski segment. The plot is a spoof mockumentary that pits Saugstad, who plays an ultra-competitive, high-maintenance diva—against Paaso, whose character is a whimsical, scattered goof. (For the record, both athletes play highly exaggerated versions of their actual personalities. And no, they’re not trained actors, but they get the job done well. It helps that they didn’t have to act all that much.)
“There was always someone melting down or a kid throwing up. We were stretched to the limit,” Paaso told me recently from her home in Sweden. “Then you have to get on the hill and perform. It wasn’t hard to act tense, because the tension was already there.”