MCCONKEY

(2013)

The sub genre of ski and snowboard films is notable mainly for wild landscapes and outlandish stunts. This film, although sharing a little of that DNA, is an outlier, because it has genuine emotional pull and ranges beyond extreme sport into something far deeper about human endeavour and the search for happiness, wherever you look for it. Shane McConkey was a skier who graduated into base-jumping, and pioneered a combination of the two, skiing off mountains and deploying his parachute at the last second. He was also a husband and a father; reconciling family and work is just one conflict in his unique life. Home video of his younger years draws you immediately close to the subject. McConkey is highly likeable, not the high-fiving brah you might have suspected him to be. Thus, the film’s last act is far more poignant than you’d bargained for.