Professional snowboarder Kimmy Fasani has one of the most inspiring stories in all of snowboarding. Now the rest of the world will get to hear it too. A documentary titled Butterfly in a Blizzard will be released in March of 2025.
Fasani began snowboarding at the age of 9, and started competing when she was 15 years old. She became a Mammoth local, became the first woman to land a double backflip in a terrain park, and filmed for Absinthe Films. She’s married to pro skier, artist, and filmmaker Chris Benchetler and has lobbied hard for women in the snowboarding world.
Then in November 2021, she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. Six rounds of chemotherapy, 30 rounds of radiation, and a double mastectomy later, she was forced to navigate motherhood while fighting for her life.
The film is a “deeply personal” look at Fasani’s journey into motherhood, and all of the blizzards that hit along the way: childhood trauma, relationship struggles, and her cancer diagnosis.
“I knew I wanted to start a family and I had no intention of slowing down,” Fasani says in the film’s trailer.
The film captures Fasani’s journey, all while trying to maintain her place in the snowboarding world.
“The problem with motherhood in western society: it’s too isolating,” a maternal health expert says in the film’s trailer. “Women are sold this bill of goods that it’s easy, natural, blissful, perfect. And that’s just not how it is.”
Fasani herself is the executive producer on the team. It is co-directed and edited by Rose Corr and Tyler Hamlet, and features music from Kaki King.
There will be two advanced screenings: one at the Big Sky Film Festival on February 15, 2025 and another at the Arc’teryx Academy Mammoth on March 8, 2025. The film’s website features testimonies from Shaun White, Leanne Pelosi, Beth Rodden, and Donna Carpenter.
“More than just a sports documentary, it delves deep into the raw and often untold challenges of being an elite athlete while navigating the complexities of life and motherhood,” Carpenter said. “It celebrates the strength it takes not just to survive life’s storms but to carve a path through them with grit and grace. This film is more than just the story of a snowboarder, it is a powerful reminder of the human spirit’s capacity for love, hope and what it means to persevere and thrive against all odds.”
A pre-order of the film is available through Apple TV. Those who do so can watch the film on their own devices on March 18.
“Initially, (Benchetler) and I intended to make a film documenting our journey of becoming parents, while navigating our careers as professional athletes — focused around advocating for verbiage changes in contracts that would allow and support all future mothers to balance their career and motherhood,” Fasani said in an Instagram post. “We quickly realized this film would be a much deeper dive into everything that has shaped me.”
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