Yeah, to inspire the thought.
Exactly. It’s funny because people come up to me and talk about it and how they’ve changed, it might not be much but I think it’s awesome. I think about it too, like every day what could I do better. I learn every day. Nobody is going to be perfect but if we at least are aware of it and if it influences those around you, then people talk about it more and eventually that’s going to make the changes that we need on the political scale. Hopefully it brings one positive thing, inspires one person somewhere, then it’s worth it.

Starting with the little things.
Yeah, with the little things and people being more aware when they vote so they might be willing to look more into what’s going on in an environmental world. Looking at each party and asking, who do I support? Do I support someone who is pushing for pipelines or do I support this other person? I’m just hoping to bring something positive and it’s funny because as soon as you try to do that people try to bring you down or bring up every negative thing that you do. I don’t know what, it’s just human nature I think. Nobody is going to change the world or save the world alone. It’s crazy how people expect you to do that. Like if you stand for it, all of the sudden you have to be perfect. For me to be perfect and not have an impact at all, I would have to live off the land like Aboriginal people did a hundred years ago. I think that’s the only way you can claim yourself as fully sustainable.

Photo: Erin Hogue

Yeah, the critics.
Yes, the critics. I’m trying to build myself a wall because I’m so sensitive sometimes. But I still think that I’m willing to take that sacrifice, to have people bring me down.

So The Little Things is all non-profit, who is supporting the project?
That’s the other challenge we had. I didn’t want it to work like most movies where you have to pay twenty grand to be in the film. I knew that wouldn’t be realistic. So many of the people riding in it don’t even have any paychecks from a company, they just get a deal on a snowboard or some free goggles. I wanted to be able to have them involved because they’re inspiring. Who cares if they’re not fully hooked up, I don’t want to go that route. So I hit up all of my sponsors to pitch in and it was really hard. A lot of the funding comes from my personal donation. It was hard to find any kind of funding, which is why the Kickstarter was a last resort thing. I need to pay Darcy Turenne, the director. She’s working so hard and not getting nearly as much as she deserves to do all of this work. I need to pay for a website and music rights, it all adds up fast. I jumped in not really knowing what to expect but I wanted to do it because I figured it was the best thing I could do right now. I’m really stoked to say that all of the riders involved didn’t have to put a penny into it and their buy-in is their story, how inspiring they are. That’s what got them in. I think that’s so rad.

I think that’s really rad too.
Yeah we had the smallest budget ever but Darcy is so good at what she does and she’s so artistic, I think there is going to be so much beauty in the film. It’s going to be different. It will be a bit more storytelling, but I think the action will be beautiful and really inspiring. I’ve been filming two years for it, I’m exciting to release it. I couldn’t be more thankful to everyone involved, to my sponsors, everyone that donated to Kickstarter — we had 358 backers. That’s been the most challenging thing in my life I think, making a Kickstarter. Crowdsourcing is scary and it sucks to ask people for help, but at the same time I found out that it was good because people feel involved and more interested too. In most movies the public can’t get involved in the filmmaking process, it was really cool. I didn’t realize how many people cared, and how harsh some people really were at the same time. A lot of people and families said, “This is what we need, we need to tell our kids how important this is, we want them to snowboard forever.” I think that was awesome. A lot of people get the bigger picture of what will happen if we all come together.

Photo: Erin Hogue

So is it all funded now?
I wanted to be paid for before it came it out. I wanted all of the money, all the profit from the film to go to Protect Our Winters and the David Suzuki Foundation. Now we’re good. It’s really freaking scary putting yourself out there trying to ask for extra help. So many people are like, “What do you mean you need more money? Don’t you have sponsors like Oakley and Red Bull?” Yeah, and they pitched in but once you do something different like this or you stand up for a cause, how much harder it is to get backing. It’s insane.

I think it’s cool that someone like you is doing something like this, who is a face in snowboarding. I think without somebody like you it’s really tough to get this message across.
Yeah, I get it now. That’s now the media works. That’s why I’m doing it, like what I’ve done in the past and to hopefully inspire people towards this message. But it’s just scary. I know Jeremy [Jones] goes through this same thing, a lot of people are criticizing him, it’s really hard for him too. I’ve never been a big fan of social media and all this stuff, then all of the sudden I had to really get out of my comfort zone. And it’s good, it’s good to get out of your comfort zone.

Is there anything else that you want to include?
I really want to thank everyone. I want to thank Darcy, she’s the director and she does not get enough credit for all that she does. When the Kickstarter came out we needed to push the media and everybody said, “Marie needs more money to fund her film,” and I said no! It was all about me. I didn’t like that. Why can’t it be about the film? I wanted it to be about the idea, the project, everyone involved. It’s all women involved too, we have Darcy, Chelsea Waddell doing our social media, Natalie Langmann is helping me with PR, so that’s pretty cool how it’s all women behind it. I didn’t want it to be all around me. But I get it, people needed to build a story and the only thing they know about the story is my name so far. But I hope that will change.