Free Solo

Director: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
Director: Jimmy Chin
Country of Origin: United States
2018

From award-winning filmmaker E. Chai Vasarhelyi and world-renowned filmmaker, cinematographer and mountaineer Jimmy Chin (MERU) comes the Academy Award-nominated film FREE SOLO, a breathtaking portrait of the free soloist climber Alex Honnold, as he prepares for an unprecedented feat: climbing the face of the world’s most famous rock…the 3,000 ft El Capitan in Yosemite National Park…without a rope. Celebrated as one of the greatest athletic accomplishments of any kind, Honnold’s climb proved that the limit of human achievement is far from being reached.

FREE SOLO is an edge-of-your seat thriller and an inspiring portrait of an athlete who challenges both his body and his beliefs on a quest to triumph over the impossible, revealing the personal toll of excellence.As the climber begins his training, the armor of invincibility he’s built up over decades unexpectedly breaks apart when Honnold begins to fall in love, threatening his focus and giving way to injury and setbacks.Vasarhelyi and Chin succeed in beautifully capturing deeply human moments with Honnold as well as the death-defying climb with exquisite artistry and masterful, vertigo-inducing camerawork. The result is a triumph of the human spirit that represents what The New York Times calls “a miraculous opportunity for the rest of us to experience the human sublime.”

Producers: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin,  Evan Hayes, and Shannon Dill
Executive Producers: Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald, Tim Pastore, and Matt Renner
Editor: Bob Eisenhardt, ACE
Directors of Photography: Jimmy Chin, Clair Popkin, Mikey Schaefer
Music by: Marco Beltrami
Gravity Performed by: Tim McGraw
Music Supervisor: Tracy McKnight
Professional Rock Climber, Film Subject: Alex Honnold
Credits:
National Geographic Documentary Films Present
A Little Monster Films Production
An Itinerant Media Production
A Parkes+MacDonald/Image Nation Production