Fly, BASE Jumping in IMAX

BASE jumping (off buildings, antennas, spans, and earth) is a sport that makes lawn darts look safe—almost. Everyone in this documentary remembers a fellow jumper who did not make it. Unfortunately, at least one of the featured athletes also dies during a jump. The stakes are high, but that is how the BASE jumpers say they like it in Christina Clusiau & Shaul Schwarz’s Fly, a National Geographic documentary, which has special IMAX screenings this Monday and Tuesday.

Apparently, couples that jump together stay together. Jimmy Pouchert and Marta Empinotti are sort of the First Couple of BASE jumping, who have taught scores of student jumpers, many of whom regularly return for their events, including an annual Thanksgiving turkey dinner. Norwegian Espen Fadnes and British Amber Fortes found each other through the sport and started competing as a couple, sort of like figure skaters in the year, as they explain. Scotty Bob Morgan started jumping when he believed he had nothing to lose. Eventually, he meets and marries Julia Botelho. When she gets pregnant, Morgan realizes he suddenly has a great deal to lose.

Two of these jumpers will have gravely serious mishaps, but not the pregnant Botelho Morgan. Things get heavy, but not that horribly heavy. However, there is real tragedy, which the jumpers address before-the-fact, thanks to some pertinent questioning from Clusiau and Schwarz.

Clearly, this is a dangerous sport, but the stunning footage—shot via drones, helicopters, and go-pros—shows viewers why they keep doing it. The more conservate BASE jumpers simply jump into the void, using larger chutes than skydivers. However, the younger, more daring jumpers prefer to glide close to the ground, wearing their Batman-like wingsuits, before releasing their chute. Wingsuit jumping is considerably riskier, but the videos sure can pull in the likes on YouTube.

Genius: Aretha (The Art Tatum/Dinah Washington Episode)

Aretha Franklin's first charting hit was with Ray Bryant and his hard-driving left hand. Columbia was trying to make her into a jazz vocalist, but Jerry Wexler at Atlantic saw her as a soul singer all the way. Alas, Bryant does not appear in the first episode, but viewers immediately get to dive into her notorious first session at Muscle Shoals’ FAME Studios when Genius: Aretha premieres this Sunday on Nat Geo.

She was known for her R&B chops and gospel roots, but she needed a hit in 1967. Wexler thought there would be hits to be had by letting Franklin be Franklin and one of the best places to do that would be Muscle Shoals, where he recorded a monster hit for Wilson Pickett. That is the sound Franklin wanted, but she did not know it came from a white rhythm section. Franklin eventually warms to the Swampers, but her disruptive, freeloading manager-husband Ted White does not.

It is hard for Franklin to watch White sabotage her comeback session, especially when she remembers where she came from. We see those scenes in black-and-white. Ironically, her talents were enthusiastically encouraged by her highly problematic father, the Rev. C.L. Franklin, who had a national following for his fiery, politically-charged sermons. At her father’s parties, she met and was encouraged by the likes of Dinah Washington and Art Tatum (played by Robert Glasper). That was also how she met White, much to her later regret.

For real jazz listeners, the best part about the initial episode is the smart way it features the music and depicts the musicians. Cynthia Erivo is spot-on channeling Franklin’s voice and presence. Likewise, Glasper is an eerie dead-ringer for Tatum (who might not be an obvious choice to include in the Aretha Franklin story). It is also nice to see King Curtis (Marque Richardson is another good likeness), considering how much his solos contributed to Franklin’s hits. Technically, he was more of a jump blues-R&B musician, but he is starting to sound more and more like jazz these days.

Lost on Everest—The Search for Sandy Irvine, on Nat Geo

In 1963, National Geographic underwrote the first successful American expedition to summit Mt. Everest. One of their editors lost his toes in the effort, but many have lost far more on the Himalayan peak. George Mallory and Alexander “Sandy” Irvine perished one the mountain, but they possibly summited first, prior to Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. If they did, the proof could be on the Kodak camera presumed lost with Irvine. Nat Geo photographer and experienced mountaineering cinematographer Renan Ozturk documents an expedition that set out to retrace the steps of Mallory and Irvine, with the ultimate goal of finding Irvine and the fateful camera in Lost on Everest, which premieres tomorrow on National Geographic.

It maybe wasn’t exactly the needle-in-a-haystack sort of undertaking that it sounds like. Thom Pollard and Conrad Anker had discovered Mallory’s body in 1999, but the Kodak was not on his person. That was disappointing, but it made sense, because Irvine was the tinkering equipment guy. In recent years, Everest historian Tom Holzel used satellite photos and eye-witness accounts to pinpoint a precise slot within the rockface that he believed held Irvine’s body. Nat Geo writer Mark Synnott found his case sufficiently compelling, he managed to convince his magazine to sponsor another Everest campaign, except this one would be focused on finding Irvine rather than on summitting.

But not so fast. As Synnott explained during an online Q&A, their Sherpas took issue with their plan, in part because an expedition without a summit detracts from their resumes. Much of this drama is left out of the final broadcast film, leaving some viewers to wonder why they are climbing to the summit rather than heading straight to the so-called “Holzel Slot.” Regardless, Synnott and expedition mates, Pollard (returning in hopes of completing what he started in 1999) and guide Jamie McGuinness experience plenty of danger and anxiety as they try to wait out the crowds on the mountain and the brutal winds in the aptly named “Death Zone.”

Tribeca ’19: The Hot Zone

Maybe there’s something in the air. Thanks to zombies, viral outbreak movies never went away, but straight-forward pandemic productions appear to be seriously flaring up again. There were several doomsday virus projects at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival, but by far, the most eagerly anticipated was the premiere of Nat Geo’s The Hot Zone, which screened the first two episodes of the limited series at this year’s festival.

For years, producer Lynda Obst has tried to bring Richard Preston’s reads-like-a-novel nonfiction book to the big screen, but after long periods of dormancy, it finally took hold at National Geographic TV. It is still rather distressing to think a mysterious strain of ebolavirus broke out in Reston, Virginia a mere thirty years ago. Of course, I’m sure we’re totally more prepared for something like this now, aren’t you?

In fact, there were a few people who were pretty well prepared for this in 1989. Lt. Col. Nancy Jaax was one of them. The veterinary pathologist was comfortable working in Fort Detrick’s ultra-secure bio-lab, but a freak (but non-lethal) mishap will throw her off her stride during the early hours of the outbreak. Jaax was probably Fort Detrick’s leading expert on all things Ebola and Marburg related, but her semi-disgraced mentor, Wade Carter, had more real world experience responding to viral outbreaks than any of else on staff. Unfortunately, his wild man prophecies of doom led to his ouster (for the sake of morale and decorum).

Jaax’s commanding officer is not happy about it, but he agrees to bring Carter back temporarily, due to the gravity of the situation. Meanwhile, Jaax’s arrogant and recklessly irresponsible civilian colleague realizes he might have exposed himself and another researcher to ebola, but he does not immediately come clean. (Is it unfair to point out he spends most of the first episode wearing a Dukakis-Bentsen t-shirt?) Regardless, if someone in an infectious disease lab asks you to smell something, just say no.

There were some interesting points raised at Tribeca’s post-screening discussion panel (featuring Preston, Obst, and co-stars Julianna Margulies and Noah Emmerich and showrunners Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson), but most of the audience probably would have preferred to watch more episodes. The first two (out of six) are highly bingeable. The science and the stakes involved are presented in a clear and understandable manner. Considerable time is devoted in the first episode to the detailed safety measures required to enter the “Hot Zone” lab, but it completely riveting rather than tedious.

Margulies and Emmerich also have quite the compelling on-screen rapport together as the Jaax and her husband, Dr. Jerry Jaax, an Army veterinarian also assigned to Fort Detrick. They are totally convincing as a couple with years of history together that are also keenly aware of the risks of her particular specialty. They also sound credible talking science. Naturally, the great Liam Cunningham steals plenty of scenes as crusty old Carter, who plays him like the kind of jaundiced but decisive maverick you would want to have on the ground during a crisis. The consistently strong ensemble includes Robert Sean Leonard as the slimy director of the infected primate lad and Topher Grace as Jaax’s arrogant and contemptibly contemptuous civilian foil.

Based on the Tribeca panel, it seems like Preston and the scientific community are behind the mini-series, which definitely good to know, but more importantly it is quality television. It is also pretty scary. While imperfect (there are some clumsily didactic attempts to draw parallels with the early days of AIDS public health challenge), it is definitely addictive. In fact, the TV track accounted for some of the best programming at this year’s Tribeca, thanks to the premieres of The Hot Zone, Chernobyl, and I Want My MTV. Highly recommended based on the first two episodes (out of six), The Hot Zone airs May 27^th, 28^th and 29^th, on Nat Geo.