I caught two remarkable documentaries to conclude the 29th Nantucket Film Festival.
Rooftopping is a subculture blending sport and art, where climbers scale tall structures illegally, often for social media fame and sponsorships. They use drones and GoPro cameras to capture stunning panoramas shared across platforms. It’s a feat that tests the boundaries between daring and insane. In Jeff Zimbalist’s Skywalkers: A Love Story, we meet Angela Nikolau and Vanya Beerkus, the world’s foremost rooftoppers. Angela, raised by circus trapeze artists, channels her childhood fascination with flight into daring climbs. Vanya, a famed social media influencer, conquers iconic skyscrapers.
Initially rivals, their paths converge when sponsors suggest a partnership. Setting aside competition, they globe-trot, scaling heights and forging a romantic bond. As they push their limits, strains test their relationship, turning Skywalkers into a tale of rebellious daring, trust, and commitment.
Their ultimate challenge: scaling Kuala Lumpur’s Merdeka 118, the world’s second tallest skyscraper, before security tightens. Their mission culminates in a breathtaking scene atop its spire, echoing a swan lift, amidst the real fear of imprisonment or worse.
Skywalkers: A Love Story is a documentary, yet it unfolds with the pulse-pounding intensity of an action thriller, heightening the stakes to exhilarating levels. With its expert editing and compelling score, the film creates an anxiety-inducing, edge-of-your-seat atmosphere. It meticulously chronicles their planning of the main event, akin to how Danny Ocean might strategize a daring casino heist, each sequence brimming with suspense and excitement.
Zimbalist, himself a former rooftopper, advised his daredevils to watch Free Solo or Man on Wire to get a feel for the flow of a documentary and to make the couple more at ease with being vulnerable in front of the camera. While the pair never got around to watching either film, they got the message and allowed their relationship to flourish and splinter and be reborn in the clouds.
I concluded my experience at the 29th Nantucket Film Festival with the Closing Night Film: Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story.
Growing up in the 1980s, my older brother and I must have watched the Superman films over a hundred times. Christopher Reeve was our idol in the role, and we played John Williams’ iconic score on our record player until the vinyl wore thin. I even named my first child after the Man of Steel.
To us, Christopher Reeve was the epitome of stardom. After starring in four Superman movies from the late ’70s to the mid ’80s, he became synonymous with the role itself. It was devastating when Reeve fell from his horse, shattering his neck and facing an uncertain future.
But Reeve defied the odds. Despite initial reports of no movement, no spontaneous breathing, and flatlining twice, he survived a groundbreaking surgery that left him paralyzed and dependent on a ventilator. After the question of his survival was answered, Reeve faced another: what now?
Directors Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui chronicle Reeve’s meteoric rise in the ’70s and the profound impact he had, both before and after the accident, in Super/Man. At its core, though, the film is a poignant love story between Reeve and his wife, Dana, and the enduring legacy they crafted together.
His adult children, along with friends and industry peers such as Glenn Close, Susan Sarandon, Jeff Daniels, and Whoopi Goldberg, reflect on the man behind the superhero cape and the immense challenges he confronted – as an actor striving for serious roles and as a pioneering activist.
