This past Thursday, Amaury Dujardin was able to attend a screening of the new film The Crash Reel, the documentary of Kevin Pearce’s recovery after his accident in Park City, New Year’s Eve 2009. Director Lucy Walker and Pearce were in attendance for a Q&A afterwards. Here is Amaury’s review:
The debate rages on. Should skiers and all action sports athletes keep pushing the limits or is pushing the limits putting too much stress on our families? Perhaps a new documentary coming out this December will help us answer our questions or at least give us a way to deal with them.
The Crash Reel, a new film from two-time Academy Award nominated director Lucy Walker, documents snowboarding legend Kevin Pearce and his recovery and struggle after his horrific accident in 2009 that ended his competitive career. While on an entirely higher level than most of us have experienced, Pearce’s story opens up the longtime argument between safety and pushing the limits of where athletes have never been before. Yet, perhaps the struggle that athletes face everyday has not yet been captured as well as Walker does in her film by examining all angles of the problem.
While I feel the joys we experience in our respective sports and communities could have been better represented in the film, Walker still does enough through interviews and various camera shots to show the audience that the feelings we all get when out in the mountains and are together is truly inexplicable.
At the same time, she documents the worries all families encounter when thinking about their children or siblings better than any other attempt I have seen before. The arguments during Thanksgiving as Kevin tries to convince his family he is going to compete again and the father’s interview when he tearfully admits he feels responsible for Kevin’s accident exhibit the raw emotion that none of us can describe.
The research put into the film also demonstrates the quality work Walker put into the project. Obviously, Pearce is not the first athlete of our kind to suffer from a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Unfortunately, the mountain community has been here before when we lost freeskiing pioneers CR Johnson and Sarah Burke. Their stories are also well documented in the film.
Overall, The Crash Reel is a very good way to educate ourselves on TBI and the battle families have when a member participates in such a sport. Regardless of what side you are on in the debate, everyone involved in such a lifestyle should watch this film to better understand other family members’ feelings. As athletes, we owe it to our parents, siblings, and relatives, who raised us to be who we are today, to understand the risks involved in what can be a dangerous sport.
If you want to learn more about The Crash Reel and The Kevin Pearce Fund, click here. Also, educate yourself more on the topic by reading other articles and viewing videos we have shared in the past.
