“Free Solo”
What started as a character portrait of the American free climber Alex Honnold took a surprise turn the day he told the filmmakers — Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin — he wanted to scale El Capitan, a nearly 3,000-foothigh spike of granite in Yosemite National Park. No one had ever done a free solo climb of the wall, which was dangerous enough even with ropes. Honnold’s chosen “Freerider” route promised sheer, vertiginous peril.
“The filmmaker in me was, like, ‘Wow!’ ” Vasarhelyi recalled. “But I’m not the pro climber or risk expert.”
“I thought it was very risky,” said Chin, a filmmaker and professional climber, who had known and climbed with Honnold for many years. He asked Vasarhelyi, his wife and creative partner, several times, “Are you sure he meant El Capitan? It’s so far beyond what the climbing community could even conceive of, and it was hard to digest.”
Making “Free Solo” required extensive physical preparation. It was a head game as well. The task also posed a stark ethical question that the filmmakers put forth in their National Geographic documentary. They didn’t want to shoot if their presence compromised Honnold’s focus on the climb. “Alex had to perform perfectly on that day, but so did the team,” said Chin, whose tiny crew practiced with Honnold for 18 months before the historic June 3, 2017, feat.
The filmmakers spent a lot of time living with Honnold in his van, capturing the Zen-like intensity of his commitment. And then they got another surprise. “It was one of those really lucky documentary moments,” Vasarhelyi said, when Honnold began a romantic relationship with Sanni McCandless. The van became a lot cozier. And a project about extreme athletic endeavor took on an unexpected dimension.
“She was someone who was emotionally intelligent and articulate and confident enough to push back on him but love him for who he is,“Vasarhelyi said. “You end up seeing him evolve emotionally.”