With “Wild Life,” the filmmaking team of Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi prove yet again — after “Meru,” Oscar-winning “Free Solo,” and “The Rescue” — that they are nonpareils at delivering consistently stunning visuals and provocative non-fiction content. Unlike most documentary filmmakers these days, they had a juicy NatGeo budget to film in the wildest areas of Chile and Argentina and the opportunity to screen their movie theatrically via Picturehouse before winding up on Disney+ May 26.
The directing duo choose their subjects carefully. In this case, at the center of this dramatic decades-spanning story is Kristine McDivitt Tompkins who, having risen to CEO of Patagonia after 23 years at the company, abruptly left to marry billionaire eco-philanthropist Doug Tompkins and join his mission to save millions of acres of wildlands in Chile and Argentina. In 2015, after he died in a kayak accident, she took on his mission and in 2018 donated 10 million acres as national parkland.
The directing duo choose their subjects carefully. In this case, at the center of this dramatic decades-spanning story is Kristine McDivitt Tompkins who, having risen to CEO of Patagonia after 23 years at the company, abruptly left to marry billionaire eco-philanthropist Doug Tompkins and join his mission to save millions of acres of wildlands in Chile and Argentina. In 2015, after he died in a kayak accident, she took on his mission and in 2018 donated 10 million acres as national parkland.
- 5/27/2023
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
The filmmaking couple Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin have earned a reputation for making documentaries about people who accomplish the unthinkable – the no-ropes climber Alex Honnold in the Oscar-winning Free Solo, or the divers of The Rescue who, against all odds, saved a group of Thai kids stranded in a flooded cave.
As it happens, the heroes of their best-known films have been men, but in their latest documentary, Wild Life, the focus shifts in large part to a woman, the conservationist and former Patagonia CEO Kris Tompkins.
L-r Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Kris Tompkins, Jimmy Chin
“It was really nice to make a film where there’s a woman at the center,” Vasarhelyi remarked at Cph:dox in Copenhagen, where the film screened last month. Wild Life, from National Geographic and Picturehouse, just expanded to theaters in Southern California, including Los Angeles, as well as the San Francisco Bay area...
As it happens, the heroes of their best-known films have been men, but in their latest documentary, Wild Life, the focus shifts in large part to a woman, the conservationist and former Patagonia CEO Kris Tompkins.
L-r Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Kris Tompkins, Jimmy Chin
“It was really nice to make a film where there’s a woman at the center,” Vasarhelyi remarked at Cph:dox in Copenhagen, where the film screened last month. Wild Life, from National Geographic and Picturehouse, just expanded to theaters in Southern California, including Los Angeles, as well as the San Francisco Bay area...
- 4/22/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
With their new film Wild Life, two top filmmakers focused on the outdoor world — Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, the directors of well-regarded climbing docs Meru and the Oscar-winning Free Solo — decided to make a film about icons of that very culture. And it felt a little messy at first, as they explain.
“I was really hesitant to make this film,” says Vasarhelyi, noting that her husband and co-director Chin — himself a world-class climber — deeply respected the film’s core subjects, former Patagonia CEO and conservationist Kris Tompkins and climbers and entrepreneurs Doug Tompkins, Yvon Chouinard and Rick Ridgeway. Moreover, as then-former and current company owners, the subjects were “used to making the decisions,” Vasarhelyi says, while the couple’s stringent filmmaking process would require them to cede control over the telling of their story.
Ultimately, though, the filmmakers overcame their misgivings (and the subjects of the film agreed to take part,...
“I was really hesitant to make this film,” says Vasarhelyi, noting that her husband and co-director Chin — himself a world-class climber — deeply respected the film’s core subjects, former Patagonia CEO and conservationist Kris Tompkins and climbers and entrepreneurs Doug Tompkins, Yvon Chouinard and Rick Ridgeway. Moreover, as then-former and current company owners, the subjects were “used to making the decisions,” Vasarhelyi says, while the couple’s stringent filmmaking process would require them to cede control over the telling of their story.
Ultimately, though, the filmmakers overcame their misgivings (and the subjects of the film agreed to take part,...
- 4/21/2023
- by Katie Kilkenny
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Mark Penn, a former strategic adviser to President Bill Clinton, and then Hillary Clinton in her 2008 presidential run, derided the marketing messages of the field of 2020 Democratic candidates as too “fuzzy-wuzzy.”
Appearing on a panel on politics and media at CES in Las Vegas, Penn explained that in his experience as a pollster and strategists, he has found that there must be “five things you can clearly see or recall about a campaign. Does it have a memorable theme or slogan? Does it have a story, a biographical story, that incorporates its values? Does it have a clear target that it’s going after? Does it have a set of issues that it really stands upon? And, does it have edge against the competition?”
Donald Trump had all five of those objectives covered in 2016, Penn said. “Any grade-school student could have told you: ‘Make America great again.’ Here he was,...
Appearing on a panel on politics and media at CES in Las Vegas, Penn explained that in his experience as a pollster and strategists, he has found that there must be “five things you can clearly see or recall about a campaign. Does it have a memorable theme or slogan? Does it have a story, a biographical story, that incorporates its values? Does it have a clear target that it’s going after? Does it have a set of issues that it really stands upon? And, does it have edge against the competition?”
Donald Trump had all five of those objectives covered in 2016, Penn said. “Any grade-school student could have told you: ‘Make America great again.’ Here he was,...
- 1/10/2020
- by Dade Hayes
- Deadline Film + TV
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.