May 21, 2010

Before B.A.S.E

Tonight had a lovely dinner with one of the first people to parachute from El Capitan in 1966 and his lovely wife of 42 years. Wow I don’t know what intrigues me more being married for that long or being one of the “B.A.S.E jumpers” before it was B.A.S.E. LOVELY!

About
Gravity is a non-fiction feature that captures what it feels like to jump off a building, cliff or bridge and walk away alive. It is about the essence of life, of freedom, of what it feels like, for a moment, to defy gravity, and to fly.

In the early eighties Carl Boenish coined the acronym “BASE” (standing for Buildings, Antenna, Span, and Earth, the objects jumped) and invented a sport. Carl was the catalyst behind modern BASE jumping; an electrical engineer and filmmaker who believed that BASE jumping would allow mankind to overcome artificial limitations. He religiously chronicled the early days of BASE in beautiful 16mm film, often with cameras mounted to the jumpers’ heads. He saw BASE as the next amazing thing to film. Subscribe via RSS.