Ellie Huff shooting for Unwritten in Cooke City, MT. The 16-minute movie is Novia Productions’ second film. Photo: Novia Productions

At her core, Ellie Huff is an artist. She surrounds herself with a plethora of inspiration: the Bridger Mountains surrounding Bozeman, MT, the glittering white of fresh snow, and the endless laughter of her close group of friends. These people are an inspiration for her work—many of whom make up the girl group of skiers who call themselves Novia. 

Ellie is 21, and the founder and director for Novia Productions. In her senior year of high school, as a capstone for Silver Creek Leadership Academy in Longmont, CO, Ellie decided to combine her passion for skiing into a short film. Gathering her closest friends, Ellie and her crew set off to make their first film, Novia [2021]. 

Ellie competed in the International Freeskiers and Snowboarders Association’s (IFSA) junior big mountain circuit as a kid, where she was first introduced to the culture and lifestyle of the freeride ski community. In the winter of 2020, IFSA realized that the number of young female participants was decreasing at a rapid rate. IFSA created Rippin Ladies, a mentorship group available to all female riders meant to inspire the younger generation. That same winter at Taos Ski Resort, NM, Ellie saw these initiatives start to come to fruition. After a long day of competing, the event coordinators pulled her into a room filled with other athletes—young girls spanning the ages of 12 to 18—who all shared a passion for the sport. The purpose was to bring women together and to provide a space for empowerment for the group inside the room. 

And it did just that. “What I say to people is: Unwritten is the one to give back to the girls that inspire me,” Ellie says, “and the first one, Novia, was to inspire younger girls.”

Ella Pietras lays one out in Cooke City, MT. Photo: Novia Productions

Novia Production’s first project, which later became the crew’s namesake, premiered in 2021. During the height of another pandemic quarantine, Novia was exactly what she—and others—needed at the time to maintain their connection to the ski community. With an average age of 17 at the time, the troupe took to various locations like Snowbird, UT and Breckenridge, CO, interviewing and skiing with young girls around the Mountain West. 

When Ellie graduated high school, she took her passions to Montana State University, lured by the proximity to the steeps of Bridger Bowl, just 30 minutes from town. With the purchase of an old-school “dad” camera, and the high social media engagement of her first film, Ellie pressed record. Working with friends, fellow students, and skiers at MSU—Lucy Hall, Ryder Schwartz, Ella Pietras, Maisie Wagner, Bethanne Droll and more—the group started filming Unwritten, their second movie. As Ella says in their first film, “[Novia] means girlfriend in Spanish. What it really means to me is that no matter who you are, no matter where you come from, no matter what your situation is, the skiing community can always be a place for you.”

Novia Productions Founder and Director Ellie Huff lines up a shot in Cooke City, MT. Photo: Novia Productions

Although the narrative of their first work stands true, with Unwritten there is a slightly different lens on the camera this time around. Both literally and metaphorically. Ditching the interview method of their last piece, Unwritten focuses primarily on skiing—it shows the progress of not only the talent of the skiers, who have graduated from their teen years, but also the crew’s perception of themselves. 

“The second one, we called it Unwritten cause it just wasn’t written at all,” Ellie says. “It was just the loosest operation, literally years of us growing up in college. And then wherever we wanted to go skiing we just went and skied and filmed.”

But the funny thing about not having a story, is that sometimes the story finds you. Unwritten’s opening scenes feel like flicking through an old photo album, and the casual film style feels like taking a ride along Ellie and her friends on the hill—a day in the life of ripping young college students. 

The 16-minute film highlights the women hitting pillow lines, sliding rails and dropping large cliffs. The film flickers through different settings—the terrain park, the backcountry near Cooke City, BC and Bozeman—as the cast grows up. Unwritten also holds a certain type of youth. This can be seen in scenes where Lucy Hall jokingly says, “I wish I could pee with the rest,” and points her pole towards the backs of men skiers in their segment at Revelstoke Mountain Resort, BC. 

Although it may be a toss away line, it is a prominent point in the film. While Lucy may not be able to “pee with the rest,” she can ski with the rest. And, though the film is still centered around the women skiers Ellie surrounds herself with, there are guys skiing with them too. 

“I just got off a set that was 50/50 men and women,” Ellie says, of her time on a media team at Red Bull Rampage this fall. “It was inspiring. My ideal world for the ski industry would have 50/50 in front and behind the camera, and to not have token female segments.”

For now, Unwritten can be considered a success story for Ellie and her crew. They managed to bring a creative eye to a simple rewind of a college experience—both relatable and inspiring for men and women. “I just think it’s cool to start making projects where [gender] doesn’t even matter. Where it’s not like, ‘this is a female film, or like this is a male film.’ It’s like: this is a film.”