The Crash Reel 2013
Previous FilmsThe eye-popping, yet intimate story of U.S. champion snowboarder Kevin Pearce uses years of verité footage to expose the potentially high price of participating in extreme-action sports. Training to compete at the 2010 Winder Olympics, Kevin suffered massive head trauma from a 2009 accident in Park City, Utah. His tight-knit Vermont family flew to his side, and together they began an intensive process of trying to rehabilitate him and help him rebuild his permanently damaged life. Kevin’s determination and the tireless support of family and friends kept him focused on recovery. But when he insisted he wanted to return to the sport he loved, his family objected. As an elite athlete, Kevin was a professional risk taker, but as a brain-injury survivor, his skills were now impaired, and even a small blow to the head could kill him.
Two-time Academy Award nominee Lucy Walker sheds light on the alarming trend of athletes pushing the boundaries of their sport past the limit. How much risk is too much? Her thoughtful and probing treatment of her subject enables us to share one family’s remarkable journey.
The Filmmakers
Lucy Walker, Director
Director Lucy Walker’s documentaries have won over fifty film awards, and she has twice been nominated for an Academy Award: firstly for WASTE LAND (2010), a documentary feature which also won over 30 other awards including Audience Awards at both Sundance and Berlin, and a year later for THE TSUNAMI AND THE CHERRY BLOSSOM (2011), about survivors of Japan’s 2011 tsunami, which also won the nonfiction jury prize at Sundance.
Her three previous feature documentaries are DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND (2002), BLINDSIGHT (2006), and COUNTDOWN TO ZERO (2010). BLINDSIGHT, about blind Tibetan students climbing Everest, premiered at Toronto and won festivals including Berlin. COUNTDOWN TO ZERO, about nuclear weapons, premiered at Sundance and played in Official Selection at Cannes. DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND, about Amish teenagers, premiered at Sundance and was nominated for three Emmys (Best Documentary, Best Director, Best Editing) and an Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary. She has also been nominated for two Emmys for Outstanding Directing for Nickelodeon’s Blue’s Clues.
Lucy grew up in London, England, and graduated from Oxford University before winning a Fulbright scholarship to attend the Graduate Film Program at NYU. She began her career by directing theatre and musical theater, winning awards at Oxford for her productions, and while living in New York she also had a career as a DJ.
Julian Cautherley, Producer
Julian is an award-winning director and producer whose projects have participated at festivals such as Sundance, Deauville, Berlin, SXSW and Tribeca. As producer, Julian is on the festival circuit with the award-winning documentary THE CRASH REEL following the dramatic fall and raise of snowboarder Kevin Pearce a traumatic brain injury survivor. Directed by two time Oscar nominated filmmaker, Lucy Walker, the film premiered at the Sundance film festival and has so far received the audience awards at SXSW and Dallas International Film Festival. On the festival circuit and in distribution in Europe is THE BEAUTIFUL GAME a documentary about the power of soccer to transform lives in Africa. Julian is about to start pre-production on the narrative film YOU WERE NEVER HERE with Katie Holmes, Zachary Quinto and Mireille Enos attached to star. Previous projects include narrative feature CROSSTOWN in which the promise of a better life is shattered when two families are confronted with the brutal reality of raising their children in Los Angeles. Tackling immigration issues the film stars Vivica Fox and Manny Perez. Julian is also partner/founder at Good ‘n Proper, a production and management company.