A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Featuring:
Raimonds Dombrovskis, Florian Huttner, Ntala Quintilio
Written by:
Arnis Aspers
Aigars Grauba
Directed by:
Arnis Aspers
Release Date:
May 4, 2017
Original Title:
Neiespējamais ir iespējams
Alternate Titles:
Neiespējamais ir iespējams
Genres:
Documentary
Production Companies:
Look at Riga
Production Countries:
Latvia
Ratings / Certifications:
N/A
Runtime: 98
A documentary film revealing the incredible and unique journey of the Latvia-born adventurer and Olympic biathlete Raimonds Dombrovskis back in 1988 as he roller-skis 4,200 miles (6,759 km) from Inuvik (The Arctic, Canada) to Baja (Mexico) in 90 days. He uses his rollerski trip as a way to protest against the Soviet regime and to explain to everyone he meets that somewhere on the map there is a small nation that has its own language and craves freedom.
A to B Rollerski tells the story of Raimonds Dombrovskis' incredible roller ski journey from Arctic to Baja, covering 4200 miles in 90 days. Raimonds is a successful Latvia-born athlete who emigrates from the USSR to the US in the 1970's at the age of 17 and becomes a seven-time US champion in biathlon. He secures his place on the Team USA at the 1988 Olympic Games in Calgary, but his dream is shattered as a sudden life threatening health condition forces him out of the competition shortly before the Olympics. But instead of giving up, Raimonds packs up his VW Westfalia van with canned soup and embarks on a 90-day roller ski trip from Inuvik, Canada, to Baja, Mexico. He's accompanied by his dog, Bucis, and his friend Martin, who drives the van and films the whole journey with a VHS camera. Raimonds uses his trip not only as a way to sort out his life but also as a way to protest the USSR and to promote the freedom of his native Latvia. Fast forward to 2014, and Raimonds, now an experienced adventure traveler in his 50's, retraces the same road trying to find the people he met in 1988 and reflecting on his life after his epic journey and the fall of the USSR.
Click each video panel to show or hide.
Although TheMovieDB might provide a key to a YouTube video, there is no guarantee that the video might be present at YouTube.
Animation:
Simon Hegarty
Co-Producer:
Dita Gruze
Director:
Arnis Aspers
Director of Photography:
Matīss Spaile
Mārtiņš Grants
Editor:
Dita Gruze
Music:
Aigars Grāvers
Producer:
Arnis Aspers
Sound Director:
Aleksandrs Vaicahovskis
Writer:
Arnis Aspers
Aigars Grauba
Most data and links to images for the Movies section come from TheMovieDB (TMDB).
Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).
At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.
Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)
While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:
Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).
Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.
Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.