In 2010, designers at Trek decided to create a new road bike for pro cycling鈥檚 spring classics. A key feature they envisioned was a suspension system that would allow the seat tube to flex independently of the frame, so riders wouldn鈥檛 bounce around on cobblestone streets. At their Waterloo, Wisconsin, headquarters, the development team drafted a three-dimensional model on a computer, then used an to print鈥攜es, print鈥攁 working prototype.

Notes were taken, tweaks were made. Over the next few months, additional prototypes were printed and tested, until a successful design was cast in carbon. A process that would have taken a year using traditional manufacturing methods instead took a few months. The result, the popular , debuted last spring and was the first to include Trek鈥檚 innovative IsoSpeed suspension system.

While it sounds like a sci-fi nerd鈥檚 still-颅distant dream, 3-D printing technology has been around for a decade. Only in the past few years, however, has it begun to revolutionize product 颅design and manufacturing. Name an industry鈥攁erospace, automobiles, medicine鈥攁nd chances are it鈥檚 颅being used to some degree, from creating cheaper, faster molds to fabricating custom parts. Gear brands in particular have piled on. In addition to its test suspension, Trek prints handlebars and saddles. Snowboarding behemoth Burton prints helmets, goggles, and bindings. CamelBak prints water bottles. And New Balance prints running cleats and even entire shoes.

鈥淭he advances we鈥檝e made in binding design in just the past five years are certainly from the fact that we were able to use 3-D printing,鈥� says Scott Barbieri, a VP at Burton.

In many respects, 3-D printing works just like 2-D printing. Guided by a digital blueprint, a 3-D printer deposits layer upon layer of raw material on a flat surface, the same way your ink-jet deposits pigment on 颅paper. The difference: the machines squirt out plastics or metals in powder or liquid form. 颅Extremely thin layers are 颅melted together with lasers or bond as they cool, and the result is a seamless, solid object.

Printers are still mostly 颅limited to materials like plastic resin and stainless steel, which don鈥檛 offer the quality and performance of, say, carbon fiber. And they can鈥檛 come anywhere close to competing with mass-颅 production systems that allow companies like Burton to churn out a snowboard binding every two hours. But boutique brands and some geeked-out consumers are already fabricating custom gear via third-party printers. A handful of independent designers have used this formula for accessories like smartphone mounts and ankle braces, and one amateur rider in Germany even printed his own bike-light clamp after a store-bought one didn鈥檛 mount properly on his bike.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not far off from 颅people being able to print their own gloves or golf balls,鈥� says Bruce Bradshaw, director of marketing for Stratasys, a 3-D-printing company in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Burton鈥檚 Barbieri takes an even more optimistic view: 鈥淚f you can design it on a computer, you can have it in your hand.鈥�

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国产吃瓜黑料‘s Favorite Films from Tribeca

There were plenty of movies to watch at the 鈥�217, to be exact. Choosing favorites was an undertaking, but we loved these seven films for their adventurous subject matter. They brought us to the remote Finnish Lapland and Somalia’s pirate bases, introduced us to a legendary fly-maker and skilled reindeer herders, tugged at our hearstrings and made our hearts race. You’ll definitely want to put them all on your summer movie list.

• The Motivation
• Aatsinki
• No Limits
• The Nightshift Belongs to the Stars
• Gasland Part II
• Kiss the Water
• The Project
• McConkey

Films from Tribeca: The Motivation

An fascinating cross-study of what really makes athletes tick, from the perspective of professional skater

gets up close and personal with eight of the world鈥檚 top skateboarders as they compete for $200,000 at the 2012 Street League Championship, the brainchild of former pro skater Rob Dyrdek. The event offers the biggest purse in pro skateboarding, and director Adam Bhala Lough sets out to discover what drives each skater to compete.

Their incentives are as varied as their ages, which range from 17 to 30 years old: , who鈥檚 won more money than any other skater, made skating his life when a controlling father pushed him into it at an early age. Veteran is a legend, but has yet to win this coveted prize. has no shortage of female fans and media attention and is determined to prove that he can also win contests. With intimate access to the skaters and their families, The Motivation gets to the heart of what drives athletes to the top of their game.

Films from Tribeca: Aatsinki

A fascinating look at reindeer herders in the remote Finnish Lapland

In , director Jessica Oreck follows a year in the life of a reindeer herding family in the remote reaches of Finnish Lapland. Dispensing with documentary conventions like sit-down interviews or narration, Oreck simply films Aarne and Lasse Aatsinki as they run their herding collective from one season to the next. This entails everything from rounding up reindeer on ATVs to keeping inventory of the reindeer in pens.

It鈥檚 a communal job at times, but also very solitary, requiring solo camping trips as they track reindeer across snowy landscapes. The film does not fill in all the blanks鈥攜ou often wonder what they鈥檙e doing, and why鈥攂ut Aatsinki is more about immersing you in this foreign, beautiful world than it is about explaining. Aarne and Lasse rely on an intimate knowledge of the land and the animals that inhabit it, and you鈥檒l find yourself mesmerized by the minutia of their ancient trade.

Films from Tribeca: The Nightshift Belongs to the Stars

A promise between two avid mountain climbers makes for shots that can’t be beat

opens outside a hospital: Matteo (Enrico Lo Verso), an avid mountain climber, has just received a heart transplant. He says farewell to fellow heart patient Sonia (Nastassja Kinski) and waves a carabiner at her鈥攁 reminder of a climbing date they鈥檝e set for the future.

Six months later, they keep their plans and meet in the Dolomite foothills of Italy. She has a husband, but this isn鈥檛 an affair. She must make this climb, she tells her husband, to fulfill her promise to a man who helped her through surgery鈥攁nd as she and Matteo begin their vertical ascent, you get it. This is more than a promise. This is two people testing their new leases on life, affirming that no physical feat can hold them back. A bit sentimental? Yes, but it also resonates. Plus, the views from the top are pretty spectacular.

Films from Tribeca: No Limits

A documentary that revisits the 2002 death of freediver Audrey Mestre during a world-record attempt in the Dominican Republic reveals tragic details

revisits the 2002 during a world-record attempt in the Dominican Republic. Airing on ESPN this July, the documentary embraces a theory that it was Mestre鈥檚 husband, freediving champion Pipin Ferreras, who pushed her to take risks, and whose recklessness may have ultimately been responsible for her death.

According to friends, Pipin trained Mestre as a prot茅g茅 once he became too old to seek the thrills that once defined him. She went on to break world records, but it was an epic 170-meter dive that would be her last. Though she successfully reaches the bottom, she鈥檚 unable to ascend when her lift balloon fails. It鈥檚 a harrowing, terrifying sequence of events to witness, and it鈥檚 even more terrifying once you realize how few safety measures were set in place: Mestre only had two safety divers to assist her (rival Tanya Streeter has 16, by comparison), and the on-site 鈥渄octor鈥� was merely a dentist.

It鈥檚 hard enough to accept the death of extreme athletes who took every safety precaution. Then you have Mestre, whose motivations may have been external, and whose death could very possibly have been prevented.

Films from Tribeca: Gasland Part II

The sequel to the Oscar-nominated documentary Gasland continues director Josh Fox’s scathing indictment of fracking

In , a sequel to the Oscar-nominated documentary , director Josh Fox continues his scathing indictment of fracking and its viability as a natural energy resource. As in his first film, Fox visits towns across the country to speak with communities situated in ground zeroes of gas drilling.

He finds discolored, undrinkable water (and captures plenty requisite shots of residents igniting their methane-polluted water), children with mysterious nosebleeds, families forced to decide between moving and taking a loss on their uninhabitable homes or staying put and endangering their health.聽

In each case, drilling companies contend that fracking is not to blame, but Fox鈥檚 evidence is difficult to ignore鈥攏ot only because it鈥檚 anecdotally significant but because the EPA actually intervenes in Pavillion, Wyoming, and concludes that fracking is a direct cause of the town鈥檚 groundwater contamination.

With every anti-fracking victory, of course, comes a host of new setbacks. If Fox鈥檚 doggedness is any indication, perhaps we鈥檒l be seeing a Gasland Part III in another couple of years.

HBO will air Gasland Part II this summer.

Films from Tribeca: Kiss the Water

A profile of the late Megan Boyd, legendary fly-maker, brings viewers into the mesmerizing world of fly fishing

The flies of a modern fly-fisher are made mostly of plastic and glue. Once upon a time, though, flies could be miniature works of art鈥攃olorful bits of feather and tinsel wrapped around metal hooks. In , director Eric Steel profiles the late Megan Boyd, a legend in the art of fly-making.

The Scotswoman lived alone in a cottage in the Scottish countryside, crafting flies that were renowned for their ability to ensnare elusive salmon. So renowned, in fact, that Prince Charles personally commissioned her to design flies for his own expeditions. Steel speaks with fishermen, all admirers of Boyd, and tracks down surviving fly-makers who knew or apprenticed with Boyd.

He suffuses the film with their accolades and anecdotes, which are almost as idyllic as the tranquil landscapes. It鈥檚 enough to make you want to drop everything and book a Scotland fishing retreat.

Films from Tribeca: The Project

Filmmakers Shawn Efran and Adam Ciralsky put their lives on the line to make The Project, a film about Somalia’s Puntland Maritime Police Force

Shooting a movie about Somali pirate hunters is not the safest undertaking, and filmmakers Shawn Efran and Adam Ciralsky can attest to that. During production on , a documentary that delves into the formation of Somalia鈥檚 , one of their producers was almost killed. Their camera crew was also arrested and indicted.

They all emerged unscathed, though, and the result is a 90-minute film about this obscure upstart military crew. Funded by donors from the United Arab Emirates鈥攁n oil nation that has been especially affected by Somali piracy鈥攖he PMPF was created by veterans of Executive Outcomes, a mercenary company similar in nature and reputation to Blackwater. The idea is to recruit men from regional tribes and dispatch this homegrown army to locate and destroy pirate bases.

That鈥檚 how it works in theory, at least. In reality, the operation is fraught with obstacles. For one, the U.N. denounces the project as a mercenary mission that flouts arms embargoes on Somalia. There鈥檚 also insurgency within the PMPF鈥檚 own ranks. Results are achieved, though, making this an ongoing and controversial experiment worth examination.

Films from Tribeca: McConkey

A heartfelt look at the life and death of freeskier Shane McConkey

When freeskier Shane McConkey passed away at age 39 during a ski-BASE accident in 2009, he left behind an inspiring legacy that鈥檚 deftly captured in the documentary McConkey. The film leads you through the many phases of McConkey鈥檚 career: After an unsuccessful attempt to join the U.S. ski racing team, he forged his own path as a freeskier, then a BASE jumper, then a ski-BASE jumper鈥攁ll the while documenting his exploits on camera, becoming an adventure film star. Directed by a team of his friends, is as heartfelt as it is gripping. We spoke with two of the directors, Rob Bruce and David Zieff, about the film.

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When did the documentary first start coming together?
Bruce: Pretty much the moment he passed away it seemed like a logical thing to do. It seemed like it would be a wonderful living tribute to him, his family鈥攁nd a great thing for his daughter [Ayla] to have. The fact that Ayla has a film about her father that she can refer to throughout her life is fantastic.

David, what did you know of Shane before doing the film?
Zieff: I didn鈥檛 know him and I really didn鈥檛 know of him, frankly, beforehand. Little did I realize that I鈥檇 come to love him indirectly through the footage and all the stories that everybody told about him.

The clich茅, and it鈥檚 not such a clich茅 in his case, is living life to the fullest. He truly did that, but what was almost more attractive to me was the fact that he knew how to laugh with himself. He was self-deprecating and humble and he knew how to enjoy life and not take it too seriously.

It’s been a motivator in my own life, taking each day as a challenge to do more and enjoying myself and living life to the fullest and not taking things so seriously. That, in addition to learning how to ski better by way of footage through a point-of-view camera.

Rob, how far back did you and Shane go?
Bruce: Shane and I knew each other ski racing [as teenagers]. We both quit ski racing at the same time and we both pursued figuring out a way to be professional freeskiers at the same time鈥攈im as a skier, me as a cameraman.

More importantly, every day that I was with Shane, regardless of whether we were shooting, or hanging out, or in an airport, was always a great day. And that鈥檚 what he really gave all of us. When we were around Shane, everybody was elevated. It was impossible to be having a bad time because nothing got Shane down. If you started whinging, or complaining about having to climb something, or the snow wasn鈥檛 good, or that we鈥檝e been in Alaska waiting for shoot day for three weeks, Shane would just laugh at you. He鈥檚 like, 鈥淟ook guys, we鈥檙e living our dream, this is part of it.鈥� He was able to overcome fear to have fun no matter what was going on.

Seeing the eighties ski “rockumentary” seemed like a real pivotal moment for Shane. What changed him?
Bruce: Our last ski race was at U.S. Nationals. We were in the lift line and he looks at me and he鈥檚 like, 鈥淗ave you seen that movie The Blizzard of Aahhhs鈥�? And I looked at him and I was like yeah. He鈥檚 like, 鈥淐an you fucking believe that? Those guys are doing that? They鈥檙e getting paid to do that? We do that when we鈥檙e not training. That鈥檚 what we do on a powder day when they鈥檙e setting the course.鈥�

We were probably supposed to train that afternoon but we went out with his mom and practiced skiing like those guys. So for me and a lot of other people, seeing that film was an example of an alternative way to keep playing in the mountains and possibly getting paid to do it. We were all really good skiers and we felt we could ski like that. We just had to figure out how we could make our own films and find a sponsor and figure out the business of it.

There are so many milestones in his career. How did you decide which ones to highlight?
Bruce: I sort of took the responsibility of tracking things in his life that would be relatable to audiences, so that became a matter of finding the events in his life where he overcame something. Because he was sort of Superman. The sports he was doing and inventing and his interests are not of the mainstream, so that鈥檚 not very relatable to a lot of people. What is relatable is having a difficult childhood. What is relatable is having a goal and failing鈥攂ut then overcoming. That鈥檚 ultimately the message of the film.

How many hours of footage did you have altogether? Shane shot a lot of video throughout his life.
Zieff: I estimated it鈥檚 probably a thousand hours of footage. So there was a fair amount of work just in labeling and getting through it all.

When people talk about who directed this film, Shane directed it. It started 20 years ago when he was 18 years old with a yellow handycam camera capturing everything.

I wanted to ask about the footage of his fatal accident in the Dolomites. Did you know from the start that you didn鈥檛 want to show any of it? Can you talk about editing that?
Zieff: I think all of us knew that was something we would be very respectful about. The footage has been destroyed of the actual accident. I don鈥檛 think anybody would want to see that. In fact, I never did. I was given censored footage myself.

I think this is a film about his life, and that鈥檚 what matters. Obviously there鈥檚 a logistical issue that we鈥檇 have to deal with鈥攑eople need to know something. So we only show the lead-up to it and not the actual moment, out of respect for the family and obviously for Shane鈥檚 wife, Sherry, and daughter. That鈥檚 not something they need to see. No one really does.

Rob, as someone who knew Shane for so long, was it difficult editing that whole sequence in the Dolomites?
Bruce: Yes, it鈥檚 hard. It鈥檚 hard for all of us, and it鈥檚 hard for audiences that are watching that portion of the film. It鈥檚 incredibly sad. So it was a hard film to make in that regards. Every time I see the film I come out a little bit rattled.

Do you guys have any favorite shots from the film?
Bruce: The college sequence I found hugely important because that鈥檚 a common time in a lot of people鈥檚 lives where people are trying to find themselves. And if you think about making the U.S. Ski Team and getting dropped early, that鈥檚 like having a mid-life crisis when you鈥檙e 18, 19 years old, right? It鈥檚 like, oh, now I have reinvent myself, and I鈥檓 in this academic environment and I haven鈥檛 really gone to school. There鈥檚 not a lot of footage from that period, and I was just so pleased with how it worked out because it shows him overcoming a tough spot.

Did his mother, Glenn, ever express regret that she hadn鈥檛 tried to restrain him from becoming a daredevil?
Bruce: She is obviously incredibly sad that her son is gone, but she never held him back. It鈥檚 so clear that the mountains and skiing鈥攁nd eventually skydiving鈥攚ere the things that he loved so much, and you just can鈥檛 ask people to stop doing what they love.

He only lived 40 years, but the way he lived them is so incredible. That鈥檚 much better than聽 spending 70 years unhappy and without passion. I鈥檇 take the 40 years in a heartbeat.

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In 1988, director Robert Stone received an Academy Award nomination for his anti-nuclear documentary Radio Bikini. Twenty-five years later, he pulls an about-face with Pandora鈥檚 Promise, in which he interviews respected environmentalists about their evolution from anti- to pro-nuclear. As Stone states in the press notes for his film, 鈥淚鈥檝e learned that just about everything I thought I knew about energy turned out to be wrong.鈥�

One refrain among activists like Michael Shellenberger and Gwyneth Cravens is that their former anti-nuclear stance stemmed more from dogma than from facts and research鈥攁nd that anti-nuclear activists are failing to consider the whole picture. The movie goes so far as to compare the rigidity of nuclear naysayers with the rigidity of climate change naysayers: both cling to beliefs despite evidence to the contrary.

So what are the facts? For one, the documentary contends, the safety risks of nuclear reactors have been blown out of proportion. The death toll and rate of birth defects are, in fact, quite low, statistically speaking. (For example, the death toll from Chernobyl is officially 56, a lower count than many might guess.) The film also asserts that today鈥檚 generation of nuclear reactors are much safer than their predecessors and are basically meltdown-proof.

What about renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power? Stone makes the argument that no matter how hopeful environmentalists might be, the world simply cannot power itself on solar and wind energy, which currently provides less than two percent of electricity around the globe. It鈥檚 neither a practical nor a viable solution. Ergo, Stone concludes, nuclear energy is the only alternative to fossil fuel resources that can reliably provide power on a global scale.

It鈥檚 hard to embrace the message of Pandora鈥檚 Promise when you鈥檝e been raised to believe nuclear energy is evil. As Richard Rhodes says in the film, the public all too often conflates nuclear energy with nuclear weapons. Which is exactly why Stone decided to tell the story through the eyes of converts: These are people who had much to lose by outing themselves as pro-nuclear. Shellenberger admits he feared for his reputation as an environmentalist, and yet he couldn鈥檛 in good conscience stay quiet about his newly found beliefs.

Stone鈥檚 documentary really does give you pause. It鈥檚 fairly one-sided, but perhaps this is because Stone assumes we鈥檙e already familiar with the other side. An urgent and ultimately pragmatic film, Pandora鈥檚 Promise implores you to examine everything you knew鈥攐r thought you knew鈥攁bout nuclear power.

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Here鈥檚 an idea: If you model the arrangement of solar panels after the arrangement of leaves on a tree, will it harness power more efficiently than traditional models? Is nature鈥檚 design superior when it comes to collecting solar energy? That was the hypothesis of 13-year-old Aidan Dwyer, who formulated the idea during a family hike in the Catskills. Based on a mathematical concept called the Fibonacci number sequence, which appears in trees and flowers sort of in the same way the golden ratio appears in art, Dwyer built solar panel structures fashioned as trees. He determined that his model was indeed superior and was hailed all over the Internet as a science wunderkind. He also won the Young Naturalist Award from the American Museum of Natural History, besting out 700 other entries.

Maysles.

A still from The Secret of Trees.

Documentarian Albert Maysles tells Dwyer鈥檚 story in a three-minute short titled The Secret of Trees, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival. What he doesn鈥檛 cover is the storm of controversy that followed when a flaw was discovered in Dwyer鈥檚 model. He was measuring voltage instead of power, which experts called an incorrect measuring method. A backlash to Dwyer erupted on the Internet, followed by a backlash to the backlash. In one camp, critics decried the attention that was lavished on an ultimately flawed experiment. In the other camp, supporters praised Dwyer for his applied, innovative thinking.

It鈥檚 too bad Secret of Trees made no mention of the brouhaha, as it would have been interesting to hear Dwyer鈥檚 take. Every scientist knows what it鈥檚 like to be wrong, and so-called mistakes are part and parcel of the innovating process. Either way, The Secret of Trees is a hopeful reminder that not all tweens are tuning out on gadgets. Some of them are actually engaging with the natural world and looking toward the future. Surely that鈥檚 not a bad thing.

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In the Sundance documentary Which Way Is the Front Line From Here?, Sebastian Junger pays tribute to late war photographer Tim Hetherington, who was killed in 2011 while covering the Libyan civil war. Through interviews with colleagues, archival interviews with Hetherington, as well as footage of Hetherington in the field, Junger offers a powerful examination of what compelled the British war photographer to throw himself in the trenches throughout his 15-year career.

Hetherington and Junger.

Hetherington.

This is a deeply personal film for Junger, who shot the Oscar-nominated Restrepo with Hetherington in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan. Besides Afghanistan, Junger takes you chronologically through Hetherington鈥檚 work in other war-torn regions like Sierra Leone and Liberia, where he embedded with a rebel army that was on a mission to oust President Charles Taylor.

As you watch Hetherington engage his subjects, joking with them and putting them at ease (some war photographers never even talk to their subjects), it鈥檚 clear he鈥檚 not your average adrenaline-addled, thrill-seeking war journalist. He鈥檚 not so interested in landing cover photos as he is in understanding the people he films and photographs. 鈥淗e was a person who seldom became a tourist,鈥� says his father. Or as journalist Chris Anderson puts it: 鈥淭im鈥檚 work was not about war. Tim鈥檚 work was about human nature.鈥�

The film is full of such poignant insights into Hetherington鈥檚 character, but perhaps one of the most telling is offered by his girlfriend Idil Ibrahim: 鈥淲alking around with him was almost like walking around with a set of 10 eyes. He was always so inspired. I think we could go to McDonald鈥檚 and he鈥檇 probably find some kind of creative inspiration there. It was never-ending.鈥� You don鈥檛 need to watch more than 10 minutes of the film to understand what she鈥檚 talking about. Hetherington is in constant 鈥渙n鈥� mode, and his restless commitment to understanding the theater of war is nothing short of admirable.

Which Way Is the Front Line From Here?, which will air April 18 on HBO, is a celebration of a brilliant photographer and a bittersweet epilogue to a career cut too short.

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In The Summit, director Nick Ryan revisits the 2008 K2 tragedy in which 11 climbers died over the course of 48 hours. It鈥檚 virtually impossible to determine exactly what happened, but Ryan comes as close to the truth as possible by interviewing climbers who were on the 24-man expedition, including Wilco van Rooijen, Pemba Gyalje Sherpa, Cecilie Skog, Marco Confortola, and Lars Nessa. Drawing from expedition footage as well as harrowing recreations, he recounts the terrifying disaster from start to finish. We spoke with Ryan, writer Mark Monroe, and climber Pemba Gyalje Sherpa at the Sundance Film Festival, where the film premiered.

Film

国产吃瓜黑料‘s complete coverage of adventure documentaries and sports movies.

A still from The Summit.

A still from The Summit.

What compelled you to do a documentary about the expedition?
Ryan: I was drawn to what seemed to me at the time the pure insanity of why people go and climb these mountains. There was an element of trying to understand but also to try and get to the bottom of the events themselves. We very quickly interviewed Wilco and Pemba in succession in October and November [of 2008] respectively, and the divergent points of view that came from those initial interviews suggested to me that there was far more to the story than meets the eye.

So piecing together the narrative was a challenge that you wanted to take on?
Ryan: Yeah. Since March 2009, we鈥檝e been working on this film consistently to get the story across. And believe me, once we started interviewing other people and getting all the stories, it鈥檚 a super complex film.

People鈥檚 memories are fuzzy even within a week of an event, not to mention they often differ from other people鈥檚 memories of the event.
Monroe: Pemba can certainly speak to this much better than I can, but I think these are traumatic events you鈥檙e talking about. When you look at someone like Marco, I think he went through something clearly physically but also emotionally. I think that plays with your mind with everyone who survived. There are so many versions of the truth because everyone has their own perception of what happened, what happened to them, what they believe happened to others, and it鈥檚 based on their experience and what they went through. But at the same time what they did go through was traumatic, and that affects your story.

You mention a staggering statistic, that one in four people who summit K2 end up dying on the descent. Pemba, why do you climb K2 when there are so many deaths related?
Pemba: Yeah, I know the dangers on that mountain. Even my family was unhappy when involving with the expedition. Not only family, many friends鈥攁lways complaining. 鈥淲hy taking unnecessary risks with something like that?鈥�

What do you tell them?
Pemba: I have to go there. Not really for the summit鈥攚e don鈥檛 know yet. I have to see. I have to go there for the experience, to see the mountain, because K2 is a mountain for mountaineers.

Monroe: I鈥檓 not a climber, but Ger said something that we put in the film, that climbing is one of the first things you learn as a child. That鈥檚 one of the first things you鈥檙e trying to do. And I will tell you that mountain climbing, to an outsider, I can see where it would be so seductive because it is putting one foot in front of the other. From the outside point of view, you think I could do that. If my body could hold up, if I had the right safety gear, if people taught me, if I worked at it, I could do that.

You talk about the climbers鈥� code鈥攄on鈥檛 rescue other climbers if it might put yourself at risk. A lot of people adhere to it in the film, but for some people it鈥檚 hard.
Ryan: It seems incredibly callous to us down here, but up in the mountain, I think all Western climbers who go and say, We鈥檙e gonna try K2, you know that when you go up there, if something happens, you鈥檙e on your own. And that is the code. For whatever reason it is, certain people鈥攁nd I鈥檝e said this to Ger鈥檚 family鈥攃ertain people are hard-wired not to be there. I mean, Ger was a very strong physical climber, but if he wasn鈥檛 prepared to actually save his own skin, in the most crass terms, he possibly shouldn鈥檛 have been there. He seemed very incapable of just walking by and leaving climbers. We have many more examples in different versions of the film. On Denali, he stopped to help stranded climbers who鈥檇 been cut loose from the team. But the one thing that didn鈥檛 happen on K2, nobody walked by a dead climber. Nobody went past somebody who was ailing to get to the summit. All the people died on the way down.

After talking to everyone, was there a consensus about the most crucial factors that contributed to the disaster?
Ryan: No is probably the answer. The Basque climber Alberto [Zerain] said that the problem is everyone relied on everybody, they shared the responsibility, and when you do that you relax and things happen. The climbing leader got sick, then the expedition leader didn鈥檛 wanna come out of his tent, so Pemba took the lead. I mean, people can ask why didn鈥檛 you start putting in ropes early. Why did you let that happen? But the Koreans were really controlling who was bringing what on the mountain, and they were scared. The Koreans come out kind of bad in this film but not for any particular reason other than they make very different kinds of decisions. A very different style of climbing. They鈥檙e willing to take risks that other Western climbers aren鈥檛.

What percent of the film was recreations?
Ryan: Only about 20 percent. About 45 percent is the archive from the 2008 expedition, and then there鈥檚 an element of looking back at the story of Walter Bonatti, who was a member of the original 1954 expedition that were the first Italians to get to the summit. That story also shows what the mountain has done to people over the years and the levels people will go to.

You shot the recreations in Switzerland and did a test shoot to prepare. What did that entail?
Ryan: To do the recreations, part of me went, Well, we could do this in a studio, just build an ice wall. But it just seemed wrong and I thought we need to be somewhere where there鈥檚 ice and snow. Where we went was in Switzerland. It was relatively safe. There were points where you were over an edge if you fell, but it was accessible. So I went there in 2010 to do a test. A couple of days, just to see how feasible it was to have cameras up there, because it鈥檚 still a high altitude and thinking alone is just hard. Even at 3,700 meters you鈥檙e very tired and you really wanna be very prepared.

How did you approach family members of the victims and how difficult was it to get them to speak?
Ryan: Obviously I talked to climbers first. Certain climbers are very willing to speak and others weren鈥檛. Marco was initially tough. Ger鈥檚 family, I spoke to them quite early in the process, in December of 2009 or January, and to say they were cagey would be to understate it. They just didn鈥檛 want anything said or done. But I just talked through what we intended to do and how we were gonna do it. At the end they saw what we were trying to make and the story we were trying to tell and fully endorsed it. They were the first people I showed the finished film to, and that was possibly the toughest screening of anything I鈥檝e ever had to do. The toughest ones were people like Cecilia鈥攖hat interview was done in January 2011 just before we started doing the reconstructions and we were all debating would Cecilia talk about it.

Where did the expedition footage come from?
Ryan: Ger had a camera. Ger was actually making a documentary of Pemba at the time, so he was filming Pemba climbing the mountain and base camp life. So he had eight or nine hours of material. Swedish climber Fredrik Strang had this incredible camera with him, just going around base camp and climbing the mountain with his camera.

At first I thought some of the recreated scenes were actually archival footage, because there are so many athletes that film what they鈥檙e doing these days.

A lot of that climbing footage is real. In some cases, reconstructions for people are a big no-no. Pemba was there for when we were doing the recreations. He was the technical advisor and more than once he kind of went, No, no, something was there, Ger was here, Marco was here. I specifically went through everything and cross-checked everything. We were very careful about that, because when you鈥檙e making a film like this, 11 people died鈥攜ou can never forget that.

The post ‘国产吃瓜黑料’ at Sundance: The Deadliest Day on a Dangerous Mountain appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

It鈥檚 been three years since Kevin Pearce hit his head during a training run in Park City, Utah, resulting in a traumatic brain injury that ended his pro snowboarding career. In the documentary The Crash Reel, which is going to air on HBO this summer, director Lucy Walker follows Pearce in the two years following his accident. It鈥檚 a long journey for Pearce, who initially clings to hope and bristles at the doctors and family members who urge him to stay off the slopes. Eventually, though, reality sinks in.

A still from The Crash Reel.

A still from The Crash Reel.

A still from The Crash Reel.

Pearce returned to Park City last week to promote the film, which is screening at the . He sat down with 国产吃瓜黑料 to talk about his current medical condition, the risks of snowboarding, and why it鈥檚 so hard for him to watch snowboarding on TV.

How often have you seen the footage of your accident?
I鈥檇 seen the footage a bunch of times, so I鈥檓 glad [the premiere] wasn鈥檛 the first time I saw that. That would鈥檝e been kind of heavy.

What was running through your head as you watched the accident with the audience?
I was thinking I hope they can understand what this means, because it doesn鈥檛 look that bad. It鈥檚 like, yeah, I catch my front edge and slam, but unless you鈥檙e a snowboarder, unless you know what the half-pipe is like and how fast you鈥檙e coming down and the force that you have when you catch an edge and how hard I snapped my head, you can鈥檛 understand why it happened. The first time I saw it I didn鈥檛 even think it looked that bad, and now I see it I鈥檓 like, holy shit.

Is this your first time back to Park City since the accident?
I came last year and it was heavy. I came to Sundance for a day鈥擝ing did a commercial of me鈥攁nd I came and I drove in, and that night when I drove in I was like, damn. My stomach kind of dropped and my heart stopped. I鈥檓 doing better this time.

Have you gone back to the half-pipe site?
I haven鈥檛. I have no desire to go back there.

Are you snowboarding much these days?
Yeah, I鈥檝e been snowboarding a bunch. I have been snowboarding a lot differently鈥攊t鈥檚 not that fun up in the parks around the half-pipes because I can鈥檛 do it. So, this is what I am kind of getting into now. [Shows an iPhone video of himself snowboarding.] This is just a couple of weeks ago, up in Canada, and it鈥檚 the most amazing thing ever. Getting to ride snow like this, it was kind of like I was floating. I still have a lot of issues with my eyes and when I鈥檓 up on the hard runs and bouncing around, because of something going on with my brain, my eyes turn double. There鈥檚 two of everything. So when I鈥檓 in the snow, all soft and powdery, it鈥檚 just freedom. It was so fun.

And this is a doctor-approved activity?
Yeah, yeah, he says it鈥檚 all good if it鈥檚 just mellow and calming. And he said if it鈥檚 just small little waves, it鈥檚 all good if I get out and surf. I was surfing a lot this summer and having a lot of fun.

Are you going to try and push it more and more every year?
I don鈥檛 know how far I wanna push it. I鈥檓 having so much fun right now. I just love life and I鈥檓 so happy. I鈥檓 not too concerned about changing it and doing more and more. For me, snowboarding was always about doing more and going bigger and doing harder tricks. Now, it鈥檚 kind of like just being happy where I am.

You were holding onto hope for a long time. When was the moment when it really sunk in that you鈥檇 never be able to snowboard the way you did before?
Yeah, I was holding onto it and was kind of not really trying to let it go and not believing that I had this change in my life. It wasn鈥檛 until I got back on my snowboard and could see where I was at that I really understood I needed to change my lifestyle.

Do you watch much snowboarding these days?
I鈥檓 going to announce the X Games this week in Aspen, so I鈥檓 gonna be watching it all. Besides when I鈥檓 doing the announcing of events, I don鈥檛 watch it too much. It鈥檚 not that fun to watch for me. If I can talk about it, it鈥檚 cool. But it鈥檚 a battle. Sometimes it is hard when the half-pipe鈥檚 really good and it鈥檚 a gorgeous day, and it鈥檚 perfect conditions. It鈥檚 like I wanna be up there, I wanna be doing that. But besides that I鈥檓 alright. When it鈥檚 cold and rainy and icy, I鈥檓 like, Yes! I don鈥檛 have to go ride today.

Some people in the film, including your father, talk about how snowboarding is always pushing limits. They wonder if there should be safety measures like capping the height of half-pipe walls. Where do you stand on this?
For me, that鈥檚 what really drew me to this sport. That鈥檚 what made me fall in love with it鈥攈ow hard and fast it鈥檚 being pushed. That鈥檚 obviously why this happened to me, because I was trying to push the sport and take it to the next level. There鈥檚 no rules. There鈥檚 no one stopping you from doing anything, and I think if that did happen, it would kind of turn a lot of kids away. But I do think you should be told to wear helmets. I think tricks and how you snowboard is one thing, but being safe is definitely another thing.

Some people who watch this won鈥檛 understand why you鈥檇 want to go back to snowboarding after the injury. What would you say to them?
I say that you have to live that lifestyle and get what I got out of it to understand it. There鈥檚 so much more there for me than just snowboarding. It gave me this feeling like nothing else I鈥檝e ever had before, and that鈥檚 why I wanted that back so badly.

Did you ever have the thought that you鈥檇 rather have another accident doing what you loved than live your life not doing it?
I don鈥檛 know, that鈥檚 a hard one. I鈥檝e never been asked that question. I have to think about that. I think it depends on the kind of life I was living. If I was living an okay life and not doing what I loved, I think that I might be okay [without snowboarding]. But if I was living a really bad life and not happy at all, I鈥檇 rather do what I love and be happy with it and get hurt again.

What is your condition like these days? You mentioned you still have double vision.
Yeah. When I鈥檓 on my snowboard and my body鈥檚 really moving and bumping, it鈥檚 pretty bad double vision. But when I鈥檓 just chilling and hanging with you right now, it鈥檚 totally fine.

What about your memory? How is that?
The memory is awful. The memory is really tough, and that has probably been the biggest deficit of this. What I鈥檝e been working really hard on and really trying to fix is my memory. That鈥檚 a hard one in life, to have such an awful memory.

You鈥檙e a spokesperson now for traumatic brain injuries. Are you doing that full-time?
Not really. When I have an opportunity I do that. I let people know what鈥檚 going on with me and how big of an issue it is and really how to raise awareness and teach people about it. I got a lot of concussions. I don鈥檛 remember how many it was before this, but I鈥檇 never heard of a TBI. I never knew what a traumatic brain injury was. So teaching these kids and giving them the knowledge is important鈥攖o say this is what happens if you hit your head this hard.

Do you still have sponsors?
Yeah, my sponsors have been insane. Amp has been just insane. They sponsored the rest of the Frends crew and will just get us all together, and that鈥檚 what I love most, just being with those guys. And then Burton has stuck with me, and Nike and Oakley, who鈥檚 been making all my glasses. So yeah, my sponsors have been very amazing.

The post ‘国产吃瓜黑料’ at Sundance: Kevin Pearce on the Risks of Snowboarding appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

In her short film Reindeer, London-based filmmaker Eva Weber travels to the northernmost reaches of Lapland to document reindeer herding among the S谩mi people. Over the course of three minutes, she offers snapshots of Sami farmers as they round up reindeer that have spent the summer grazing in the mountains. Watch the film here and be mesmerized by the stillness of Lapland鈥檚 subzero landscape, broken only by the muted neighing of reindeer. Weber spoke to 国产吃瓜黑料 about shooting Reindeer, which is screening at the .

A still from Reindeer.

How did you first come across S谩mi reindeer herding?
I was always fascinated by the idea of going to Lapland and seeing reindeer and the Northern Lights. So when [the website] Nowness approached me about making a film about reindeer in Lapland in the run-up to Christmas 2011, I jumped at the chance.聽The original idea was to make a film about reindeer racing. Unfortunately, a couple of days before we were due to travel, we discovered that the racing hadn’t started due to recent weather conditions鈥攚hen we traveled there in early December, it was unusually warm. Temperatures were around 5 to minus-4 degrees Fahrenheit, which meant the herding of the reindeer had been delayed.

Once I got to聽Karigasniemi, we therefore had to regroup and explore our surroundings. I realized very quickly that I wanted to film at the herding pen where the reindeer are corralled and then separated coming down from the mountains. We visited the pen on our first day and I was fascinated by the place. It had a very distinct atmosphere,聽even completely deserted. I wanted聽to capture聽the eerie isolation of the Artic landscape and capture the sheer adrenaline rush and excitement of the herding.

How long did it take to shoot?
We were only in Lapland for three days, with an additional two travel days. Which was a real challenge under the circumstances. In early December there are only a few hours of light each day, with twilight looming at 9:30 a.m. and complete darkness having settled by 2 p.m.

What were some of the biggest challenges during production?
The biggest challenge was really working with the limited amount of daylight available to us, but also in the subzero temperatures. Knowing we only had three days to film this, we had to make the most of our time and were often filming until late at night. While it was unseasonably warm when we were filming, it was still very cold, making it very hard for us to work long hours but also impacting on the equipment we were using. We had to make sure cameras and lenses were not fogging up due to the cold, and our sound equipment actually failed due to the weather conditions. Luckily we had a back-up system on the camera. It really was a very tough shoot.

How did you get up to Karigasniemi?
Karigasniemi is a tiny village on the border between Finland and Norway. It is pretty much as far north as you can or want to go in Finland, and there is not a lot before you hit the Barents Sea. Traveling-wise, we flew from London to the most northern airport in Finland, Ivalo, via Helsinki. From there聽we picked up a聽hired car and traveled the final two hours along some very daunting ice-covered roads to Karigasniemi. I can tell you there were some extremely close calls with reindeers on the road.

How many reindeer are being herded onto that farm?
Over the course of autumn and winter, thousands of reindeer are herded down from the mountains.聽Each autumn, as the daylight retreats, the聽S谩mi聽prepare for the winter by bringing the reindeer聽in聽from聽the mountains where they spend聽the聽summer. The聽S谩mi聽work together as a group to make this more manageable, and the reindeer are only separated by the owners at the herding pen.聽Once separated, some go to the slaughterhouse, others are kept for breeding and a few males are neutered and trained as work reindeers, mainly for pulling聽sledges and for racing.

Just as a small side note, it has been said that it鈥檚聽rude to ask a S谩mi how many reindeer he has, although I did ask Ari [one of the herders].聽It鈥檚 like asking a Westerner how much money he has in his bank account.聽The聽S谩mi聽say their money 鈥渞oams around.鈥�

What鈥檚 the sorting process like, and how long does it take?
The聽S谩mi聽can scan a herd of galloping reindeer and recognize his or her reindeer from 40 meters away just by its unique earmark. Once the reindeer arrive at the main pen, the sorting starts, and this can take several hours and goes on until deep into the night.聽This whole process will happen several times every season.

Is it correct that reindeer husbandry is legal for only a limited portion of the population in Norway, Sweden, and Finland?
In Norway and Sweden, only聽S谩mi聽are legally allowed to herd reindeer. In Finland, reindeer herding is not restricted by ethnicity鈥攁ll Finnish citizens who live in the area are allowed to own reindeer. The work of the herders is known as 鈥渂oazovazzi,鈥� which means 鈥渞eindeer walker.鈥� Although, they now work on all-terrain vehicles, a modern spin on a traditional lifestyle.

What were some of the most surprising things you learned about reindeer? I, for one, never knew they sounded like that.
The reindeer really do make the most incredible noises, and this is something I never even considered or thought about before going there. You can literally hear them from a long distance, and it is beautiful. I also was amazed at how small they actually are, even compared to deer.

Once you are in the herding pen, their energy is incredible. I will never forget standing in the middle of the animals frantically running around us in circles as they were being separated. What was amazing was standing in the path of the running reindeer and barely being brushed by them. At the incredible speed they move and with those antlers, it’s amazing how they manage to avoid聽obstacles in their path.

The post ‘国产吃瓜黑料’ at Sundance: Reindeer Herding in the Lapland Wilderness appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

The Toronto Film Festival has come and gone, and I was on the scene to check out the fest鈥檚 most promising offerings. The standout films turned out to be profiles of adventure seekers鈥攁s well as adventure survivors. In Storm Surfers 3-D, pro surfers Tom Carroll and Ross Clarke-Jones bounce around Australia in search of death-defying swells. Kon-Tiki revisits Thor Heyerdahl鈥檚 gutsy journey across the Pacific in nothing but a wooden raft. The Deep recreates the miraculous tale of a shipwreck survivor in Iceland. I also enjoyed the forays into the world of organized sports (9.79* and Venus & Serena) and a beautifully shot documentary about disappearing bees (More Than Honey). Here鈥檚 the full lowdown on all six films.

• Storm Surfers 3-D
• Kon-Tiki
• The Deep
• 9.79*
• Venus & Serena
• More Than Honey

The post ‘国产吃瓜黑料’ at the Toronto Film Festival appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.