TOUCHING THE VOID

(2003) DIRECTOR: Kevin Macdonald

DVD

NETFLIX

SUMMARY:

TOUCHING THE VOID, directed by Kevin Macdonald, reconstructs the story of a fateful climb Joe Simpson and his mountaineering partner Simon Yates undertook in the Peruvian Andes in 1985. Screening to acclaim at the 2003 Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals, this feature documentary combines dramatic reconstruction of the climb and interviews with the two climbers it nearly killed. Joe Simpson and Simon Yates set out to climb the west face of the Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. It was 1985 and the men were young, fit, skilled climbers. The west face, remote and treacherous, had not been climbed before. Following a successful 3 1/2 day ascent, disaster struck. Simpson fell a short distance and broke several bones in his leg. With no hope of rescue, the men decided to attempt descent together with Yates lowering Simpson 300 feet at a time in a slow, painful process that could have potentially been deadly for both. -IFC

VIDEO: FULL FEATURE



Remainder of film can be found on YouTube

REVIEWS, INTERVIEWS, CREDITS:

• 'Making the Cut: How Joe Simpson's best-selling thriller became a stunning film epic' (Outside Online)
  
• How They Made Touching The Void: Filmmaking on the Edge (Channel4)
• Film production notes
• AV Club review
  
• CineScene review
• At The Movies review (VIDEO)
• Director's statement
• Some of Kevin Macdonald's other credits include: One Day in September (1999), A Brief History of Errol Morris (2000), Being Mick (2001), The Last King of Scotland (2006)

NOTES:

• To take this story from the page to the screen was an enormous challenge. Over the past 15 years numerous attempts had been made, but all to no avail. In the late 90s Actress Sally Field's Fogwood Films acquired the option, intending to turn the story into a Hollywood feature film that was to star Tom Cruise. However, no feature film has been made. One major creative problem is that up until now writers have struggled as to how to bring TOUCHING THE VOID to the screen, given that there are only two protagonists and they are separated for most of the story.
  
• The twenty-two day shoot was made more arduous by the lack of any contingency days and some of the worst snowstorms of the decade in the Alps. "It was terribly difficult," says Macdonald. "The camera freezing up, the lenses fogging over, the actors and ourselves getting pulled aside by the safety guys because they said it was too cold and we were going to get frostbitten. We had to go in and out half an hour at a time. And it's a lot of action with no dialogue so it's not like you can just resort to dialogue scenes, you've got to be very physical non-stop. Every day was a fight just to get things done, just to get even some of it covered and that was exhausting." - Production Notes