Free Solo
A documentary about Alex Honnold’s attempt to climb El Capitan without ropes, where camera position and the ethics of filming real danger become part of the story.
- YEAR
- 2018
- DIRECTOR
- Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi · Jimmy Chin
- COUNTRY
- United States
- LENGTH
- 100 min
- SPORT / THEME
- Climbing · Documentary
- CAST / FEATURED PEOPLE
- Alex Honnold
Free Solo in the wider sports-film conversation
Free Solo is worth viewing not only as a self-contained story but as part of a wider conversation about how sport is represented on screen. Free Solo is a strong case study in documentary suspense: the filmmakers must create distance, access and legibility without pretending that the risk exists only for the camera.
Continue through Climbing, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, 2018 and United States. For a closer reading, see Free Solo Risk And Distance.
Synopsis
A documentary about Alex Honnold’s attempt to climb El Capitan without ropes, where camera position and the ethics of filming real danger become part of the story.
Place in film history
Free Solo is a strong case study in documentary suspense: the filmmakers must create distance, access and legibility without pretending that the risk exists only for the camera.