I was having a problem sleeping the other night and discovered this film on Netflix.
The film is about Philippe Petit's attempt to walk a high wire between the Twin Towers in New York.
As a kid, I recall hearing about this feat, and being totally amazed by it. Having worked in the Twin Towers as a consultant and spent a lot of time around them myself in the 90's as a contractor for various firms, I was really interested to learn more about it. I remember always being amazed by their height, and recall on more than one occasion, walking down to the plaza after dinner when it was quiet and just looking up at them.
The film combines reenactment with archival footage to tell the story, and it's a fun ride, recounting Philipe's other exploits which included traversing the towers of the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Sydney Harbor bridge.
One of the things about the film that I really liked was that there was this sort of heist element to it where the heist wasn't about hurting people or stealing property, but rather about seeing what you could get away with. This resonated with me because as a kid, I belonged to a group of misfits that were involved in such exploits, though nothing we ever did was as crazy or as death defying.
I still don't know or understand what drives or motivates people like Philippe, but I couldn't help being drawn in by his character.
The reenactments were well placed and integrated well into the story, and helped keep the talking head factor to a minimum. There was lots of great archival footage and photos of their exploits. I really liked that Philippe and his crew thought to shoot lots of their own film and photos as they went through this journey, it really took you back, and gave you a great sense of what it was like to be a part of their adventure.
I was too bleary eyed that late at night to even bother reading the description, I was really just pulled in by the thumbnail in the library and started watching immediately. I only found out later that in addition to being a really amazing little film, it was the winner of the 2009 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. It was easy to see why.