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| Lucy Walker: documentaries from the school of hard knocks | Lucy Walker: documentaries from the school of hard knocks |
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| There comes a dawning dread, part way through The Crash Reel, where you wonder if you are watching one long suicide. Lucy Walker, who filmed the pro-snowboarder Kevin Pearce's recovery from a head injury as he became determined to get back on a snowboard – something his doctors tell him would kill him were he to fall again – says she felt the same way as she was making it. "It was horrifying because he was so determined," she says. | There comes a dawning dread, part way through The Crash Reel, where you wonder if you are watching one long suicide. Lucy Walker, who filmed the pro-snowboarder Kevin Pearce's recovery from a head injury as he became determined to get back on a snowboard – something his doctors tell him would kill him were he to fall again – says she felt the same way as she was making it. "It was horrifying because he was so determined," she says. |
| After practising a cab double cork – a double backflip with a twist – at a 22ft halfpipe in Utah in December 2009, the American landed on his head and suffered a traumatic brain injury that left him in a coma for days, followed by years of rehabilitation. Were this the Hollywood movie version, the character of Pearce would surely have defied all medical advice and gone on to compete at the winter Olympics, which he was training for when he had his accident. But real life is so much more interesting. It isn't too much of a spoiler to say Pearce eventually chooses not to go back to competition boarding; the real revelations are in the conversations with his family (particularly with his brother David who has Down's syndrome), which slowly start to persuade him that the risk is too great. And in what it's like to have to reshape your life after you've lost the thing you live for. | After practising a cab double cork – a double backflip with a twist – at a 22ft halfpipe in Utah in December 2009, the American landed on his head and suffered a traumatic brain injury that left him in a coma for days, followed by years of rehabilitation. Were this the Hollywood movie version, the character of Pearce would surely have defied all medical advice and gone on to compete at the winter Olympics, which he was training for when he had his accident. But real life is so much more interesting. It isn't too much of a spoiler to say Pearce eventually chooses not to go back to competition boarding; the real revelations are in the conversations with his family (particularly with his brother David who has Down's syndrome), which slowly start to persuade him that the risk is too great. And in what it's like to have to reshape your life after you've lost the thing you live for. |
| The Crash Reel is Walker's sixth long-form documentary, and she has become one of Britain's most acclaimed and ambitious film-makers. Her other films have included Blindsight, in which she followed a group of blind teenagers attempting to climb the 23,000ft Lhakpa Ri in the Himalayas, and Countdown to Zero, in which she examined the rise of nuclear weapons, and interviewed Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev and Tony Blair. Her last two films – Waste Land, filmed on one of the world's biggest rubbish dumps in Rio de Janeiro as the Brazilian artist Vik Muniz collaborated with some people who worked there, and The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom, about the aftermath of Japan's 2011 disaster – were both nominated for Oscars. | The Crash Reel is Walker's sixth long-form documentary, and she has become one of Britain's most acclaimed and ambitious film-makers. Her other films have included Blindsight, in which she followed a group of blind teenagers attempting to climb the 23,000ft Lhakpa Ri in the Himalayas, and Countdown to Zero, in which she examined the rise of nuclear weapons, and interviewed Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev and Tony Blair. Her last two films – Waste Land, filmed on one of the world's biggest rubbish dumps in Rio de Janeiro as the Brazilian artist Vik Muniz collaborated with some people who worked there, and The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom, about the aftermath of Japan's 2011 disaster – were both nominated for Oscars. |
| When Walker met Pearce, she was taken with the charismatic young man who was still reeling from his accident, but she wasn't convinced his story could be a film. "It was a sad story – Olympic hopeful crashes – but it took a while to see the potential for something more," she says. "Then I realised I could find footage to tell the whole story, piece together things I had missed of him coming up through the sport. I also realised he and his family were really interesting, and the story wasn't over because he was determined to go back and that was so dangerous. And I guess the third point was about risk-taking in our culture. Lots of sports are going through this evaluation of what risks are acceptable, so it's a more interesting way of getting at that story." | When Walker met Pearce, she was taken with the charismatic young man who was still reeling from his accident, but she wasn't convinced his story could be a film. "It was a sad story – Olympic hopeful crashes – but it took a while to see the potential for something more," she says. "Then I realised I could find footage to tell the whole story, piece together things I had missed of him coming up through the sport. I also realised he and his family were really interesting, and the story wasn't over because he was determined to go back and that was so dangerous. And I guess the third point was about risk-taking in our culture. Lots of sports are going through this evaluation of what risks are acceptable, so it's a more interesting way of getting at that story." |
| Visually, it is stunning – the white powder and blue skies, the aerial twists and turns – and there is something endlessly fascinating about watching people who are prepared to risk their lives for something they love. Walker wasn't part of the snowboarding or freestyle skiing world, "but I love watching these sports – big-wave surfing or mega ramp skating. You can't rip your eyes away, but part of the reason for that is knowing how dangerous it is and how high the stakes are. That experience of watching is interesting because you are complicit." The accidents – known as athletes' "crash reels" – have become some of the most popular clips of extreme sports. | Visually, it is stunning – the white powder and blue skies, the aerial twists and turns – and there is something endlessly fascinating about watching people who are prepared to risk their lives for something they love. Walker wasn't part of the snowboarding or freestyle skiing world, "but I love watching these sports – big-wave surfing or mega ramp skating. You can't rip your eyes away, but part of the reason for that is knowing how dangerous it is and how high the stakes are. That experience of watching is interesting because you are complicit." The accidents – known as athletes' "crash reels" – have become some of the most popular clips of extreme sports. |
| The business has become lucrative, with young stars fuelled by talent, rivalries and a feeling of invincibility – not to mention the lure of big sponsorship deals. "But what seems like a big amount of money when you're 17 doesn't really mean a lot if you wind up paralysed, dead or with a traumatic brain injury," she says. "I was looking around and seeing if anybody was asking these questions, and I was shocked to find that nobody really was. Even at the Olympics, there is no real conversation about safety that is keeping pace with how fast the sports are developing." In Sochi, Russia, boarders are training to pull off a triple cork (a move that's almost impossible to describe, but involves a number of aerial twists); just a couple of years ago, a double cork was considered advanced. "The evolution is extraordinary, which makes the sport really thrilling but at the same time dangerous." | The business has become lucrative, with young stars fuelled by talent, rivalries and a feeling of invincibility – not to mention the lure of big sponsorship deals. "But what seems like a big amount of money when you're 17 doesn't really mean a lot if you wind up paralysed, dead or with a traumatic brain injury," she says. "I was looking around and seeing if anybody was asking these questions, and I was shocked to find that nobody really was. Even at the Olympics, there is no real conversation about safety that is keeping pace with how fast the sports are developing." In Sochi, Russia, boarders are training to pull off a triple cork (a move that's almost impossible to describe, but involves a number of aerial twists); just a couple of years ago, a double cork was considered advanced. "The evolution is extraordinary, which makes the sport really thrilling but at the same time dangerous." |
| The film was the first to be shown at the X Games, the main extreme sports event, this year, "which I thought was quite surprising because they hadn't watched it yet and we do raise questions about the X Games. When we were editing, there were lots of snowmobile crashes to put together and we kept asking ourselves, 'Is this a sport? This is like Evel Knievel for teenagers'." Shortly after the screening, one competitor, Caleb Moore, 25, was killed after trying to do a backflip trick on his snowmobile. | The film was the first to be shown at the X Games, the main extreme sports event, this year, "which I thought was quite surprising because they hadn't watched it yet and we do raise questions about the X Games. When we were editing, there were lots of snowmobile crashes to put together and we kept asking ourselves, 'Is this a sport? This is like Evel Knievel for teenagers'." Shortly after the screening, one competitor, Caleb Moore, 25, was killed after trying to do a backflip trick on his snowmobile. |
| "It's not an advocacy film," says Walker, and you are not left with the feeling that extreme sports should be banned, though she adds she is working with Pearce to promote their Love Your Brain campaign to raise awareness of traumatic brain injuries. | "It's not an advocacy film," says Walker, and you are not left with the feeling that extreme sports should be banned, though she adds she is working with Pearce to promote their Love Your Brain campaign to raise awareness of traumatic brain injuries. |
| Walker didn't grow up obsessed with documentaries or films. She studied English at Oxford because she wasn't sure what else to do, and even though she enjoyed directing plays while she was there, she wasn't really aware that directing was something she could go on and do as a full-time job. She describes winning a Fulbright scholarship to attend the graduate film programme at New York University as "a bit of luck". A self-described "massive feminist", she credits the course with giving her the confidence to become a film-maker. "I was so fortunate that I was put in that situation where I was forced to make my own films and learn the craft, and become confident in all the technical aspects because it meant that when I went out there on my own I believed I could do it." Without that, she thinks, she can see how she could have simply become somebody else's assistant. | |
| Why are there so few female film directors? Simply, she says, Hollywood is a sexist industry, "and I think now it's at the point where it doesn't even try to hide that." She says she knows female screenwriters who put male pseudonyms on their work just to get it read, and has heard over and over the belief that audiences are not particularly interested in women in lead roles and films about women's stories. | Why are there so few female film directors? Simply, she says, Hollywood is a sexist industry, "and I think now it's at the point where it doesn't even try to hide that." She says she knows female screenwriters who put male pseudonyms on their work just to get it read, and has heard over and over the belief that audiences are not particularly interested in women in lead roles and films about women's stories. |
| She recently read Sheryl Sandberg's book Lean In: the way Facebook's chief operating officer wrote about the lack of "likability" in successful women got her thinking about how differently female directors are viewed from men, even if both are equally as driven and clear in what they want from their cast and crew. "There are still people who have an issue working with a woman director. Women can be viewed as 'difficult' even though they work in the same way as men." Although she is interested in directing fiction films, Walker feels fortunate to have worked in documentary. "There is more autonomy; you're left on your own to get on with it." | She recently read Sheryl Sandberg's book Lean In: the way Facebook's chief operating officer wrote about the lack of "likability" in successful women got her thinking about how differently female directors are viewed from men, even if both are equally as driven and clear in what they want from their cast and crew. "There are still people who have an issue working with a woman director. Women can be viewed as 'difficult' even though they work in the same way as men." Although she is interested in directing fiction films, Walker feels fortunate to have worked in documentary. "There is more autonomy; you're left on your own to get on with it." |
| If this is a supposedly golden age for documentaries, it has been driven not only by better and more democratic technology, but a hunger for true stories and access to real hidden worlds. "When I watch a fiction film now, it has to be very good in order for me not to get bored," she says. "I think we have become oversaturated with tired fictional narratives." Real life, as Walker has repeatedly shown, is often so much more compelling. | If this is a supposedly golden age for documentaries, it has been driven not only by better and more democratic technology, but a hunger for true stories and access to real hidden worlds. "When I watch a fiction film now, it has to be very good in order for me not to get bored," she says. "I think we have become oversaturated with tired fictional narratives." Real life, as Walker has repeatedly shown, is often so much more compelling. |
| • The Crash Reel is released in the UK on October 4, and will screen on Sky Atlantic in November. | |
| • This article was amended on 25.9.13. A mishearing resulted in Lucy Walker describing her time at New York University as "a bit of a lark". What she actually said was that she regarded getting in as "a bit of luck". This has been corrected. | |
| More on The Crash Reel | More on The Crash Reel |
| • The Crash Reel: first-look review • Lucy Walker - Sheffield Doc/fest interview | • The Crash Reel: first-look review • Lucy Walker - Sheffield Doc/fest interview |
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