On Tuesday, Travis Rice and Eric Jackson were in New York City for a special screening of their yet-to-be-released film, The Fourth Phase. The film is the latest in Rice’s series of snowboarding films, which includes The Community Project; That’s It, That’s All; and The Art of Flight. The Fourth Phase has been in production for the past three years and will finally debut to the public this Sunday, streaming live for free on Red Bull TV.
The Fourth Phase had a lot of hype to live up to. The first trailer dropped in December of 2015 and was filled with epic visuals and a good soundtrack. It set high expectations for a globe-trotting adventure, with Rice and crew following the hydrologic cycle around the globe — a notion that the actual film only loosely follows. The film also had big shoes to fill after The Art of Flight, which, at premiere, was the best snowboard film ever produced. It was radically different from all other snowboard films, both visually and conceptually. And unfortunately, The Fourth Phase fell short.
But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth watching. The film is still captivating both for the quality of the snowboarding and the destinations it features. Rice, Jackson and Mark Landvik travel to some of the most remote places on the globe in an effort to push snowboarding further and redefine what’s possible with a single plank of wood underneath two feet. If nothing else, watch it for one of the heaviest avalanche shots in recent memory, or the enchanting methods of Bryan Iguchi, or the charging style of Pat Moore — or even the original score by Kishi Bashi. But don’t expect it to be another Art of Flight. For that, we’ll have to wait for Rice to take on a fifth installment.
You can stream The Fourth Phase live on Red Bull TV at 9 p.m. from wherever you are on the globe on Sunday, October 2.