Free Solo
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Free Solo is a 2018 American documentary film directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin that profiles rock climber Alex Honnold on his quest to perform a free solo climb of El Capitan in June 2017.
Production
The film devotes some time to documenting its own production process, with director Jimmy Chin and his camera crew (all experienced climbers themselves) discussing the challenge of not endangering climber Alex Honnold by distracting him or pressuring him to attempt the climb at all. According to director Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, this was solved with a lot of practice. To record sound from Honnold, who was often too far from the cameras to use a wireless microphone, a special recording device was devised that was carried by Honnold inside his chalk bag.
The film was made by National Geographic Partners, which at the time of the film's release was majority-owned by 21st Century Fox, with the remainder owned by the National Geographic Society.
