Reel Rock’s ‘Jirishanca’ Film Editing Kerfuffle

I tend to give Outside a lot of grief, but this article about Reel Rock’s film editing controversy in Climbing (by Outside) by Steven Potter is just terrific journalism and writing. It details how a popular high budget climbing film was edited/altered to tell a better story and worth reading in it’s entirety:

… when Lempe and Smith’s footage appears in the climactic summit scene in Jirishanca, a climbing documentary directed and produced by longtime climbing-film legends Josh Lowell and Peter Mortimer that premiered in Reel Rock 18 and is now available on Patagonia’s YouTube channel, Berg is nowhere to be seen.

Neither is his rope. Neither are his footprints.

The coincidence had been edited out of the story.

Potter continues diving into the history of climbing documentaries and wonders where the lines are drawn between capturing the story of the climb vs. telling a story that’s engaging for the audience. Climbing films are in many ways several decades ahead of the times compared to trail running ones. Especially after the commercial success of ‘Free Solo’ they have become a different entire breed with many of the top players looking to find the next blockbuster. He calls out several (most) high profile climbers and climbing filmmakers for taking lots of liberty in their story telling and shot selection, flirting with the line between documentary and fiction. His conclusion:

The story just wasn’t about that. Storytelling, both written and documentary, is a process of omission. Essentially, you’re following a thread, but you’re also trying to cast aside unnecessary details. If people want the comprehensive history, they should read the American Alpine Journal.

But who asks for that? Are we really wanting to “just be enchanted and entertained” with these type of films? Or would a real and honest story be just as engaging. And maybe the realness could actually be what the sport needs and society wants?