Astoria, New York—Museum of the Moving Image will present back-to-back screenings of The Summit, Nick Ryan’s gripping new documentary about the 2008 disaster on K2, with Ryan in person, and Touching the Void, Kevin MacDonald’s now-classic 2003 documentary about two climbers attempting to reach the summit of the Siula Grand mountain in Peru. This double feature recognizes both the Tenth Anniversary of Touching the Void, as well as the upcoming release of The Summit, which opens theatrically on October 4th.
Both films will be shown at the Museum on Sunday, September 29th. See below for full descriptions.
Touching the Void
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1:30 p.m.
Dir. Kevin MacDonald. 2003, 106 mins. 35mm. In 1985, British mountain climbers Joe Simpson and John Yates climbed Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes, becoming the first men to scale the 21,000-foot mountain. Their joy in reaching the summit, however, quickly turned to tragedy during their descent: Simpson suffered a brutal fall and his friend Yates left him for dead. Simpson, however, survived under impossible circumstances and made it through an ice wall and the incredibly steep mountain camps—after losing one leg. Based on Simpson’s 1988 memoir, Touching the Void retraces the climbers’ white-knuckle journey through affecting reenactments and gripping current footage, bringing to life this truly inspirational. The Village Voice’s Jessica Winter wrote, “Touching the Void unexpectedly bridges genres—it’s a buddy movie, a horror story, a boy’s-own adventure, and a near metaphysical meditation on the limits of human endurance.”
PREVIEW SCREENING
The Summit
With director/producer Nick Ryan in person, moderated by Marshall Fine
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 4:00 p.m.
Dir. Nick Ryan. 2013, 99 mins. Digital. The Himalayan mountain K2, commonly known as Savage Mountain, has a fatality rate of one in four climbers; K2 has rightfully earned the title of the second most murderous mountain. On one fateful day in August 2008, 22 climbers from several international expeditions converged on High Camp of K2, the last stop before the summit. Forty-eight hours later, eleven had been killed or simply vanished into thin air. A stunning pastiche of archival footage, reenactments, and heartbreaking interviews, Nick Ryan’s documentary thrusts the viewer into the adrenaline-fueled agonies and ecstasies of reaching the summit. There will be a discussion with Ryan following the screening moderated by moderated by film critic and journalist Marshall Fine (Hollywood and Fine).