Interview with James Marsh
The film
Highlights:
On August 7th 1974, a young Frenchman named Philippe Petit stepped out on a wire illegally rigged between New York's twin towers, then the world’s tallest buildings. After nearly an hour dancing on the wire, he was arrested, taken for psychological evaluation, and brought to jail before he was finally released.
Following six and a half years of dreaming of the towers, Petit spent eight months in New York City planning the execution of the coup. Aided by a team of friends and accomplices, Petit was faced with numerous extraordinary challenges: he had to find a way to bypass the WTC’s security; smuggle the heavy steel cable and rigging equipment into the towers; pass the wire between the two rooftops; anchor the wire and tension it to withstand the winds and the swaying of the buildings. The rigging was done by night in complete secrecy. At 7:15 AM, Philippe took his first step on the high wire 1,350 feet above the sidewalks of Manhattan…
James Marsh’s documentary MAN ON WIRE brings Petit’s extraordinary adventure to life through the testimony of Philippe himself, and some of the co-conspirators who helped him create the unique and magnificent spectacle that became known as “the artistic crime of the century.”
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Man on Wire opens at New York's Lincoln Plaza Cinemas and Landmark's Sunshine Cinema Friday July 25th
Transcript:
After graduating from Oxford University, Marsh worked as a researcher and then a director for the BBC. His breakthrough documentary, Troubleman, (1994) chronicled the last years of soul singer Marvin Gaye and his murder at the hands of his father, a fundamentalist preacher and occasional transvestite. This was followed by The Burger and the King (1996), a documentary about Elvis Presley's bizarre eating habits as told by those who cooked for him at Graceland. The Burger and the King screened at the Montreal and Chicago film festivals and garnered many awards, including Best Documentary from the Royal Television Society.
In 1998, Marsh's documentary profile of Velvet Underground member John Cale earned Marsh a BAFTA award in Wales for Best Music Documentary. In 1999, Marsh completed work on Wisconsin Death Trip - a dramatized documentary about a small town in Wisconsin blighted by outbreaks of suicide, murder and insanity in the 1890s. Marsh won his second BAFTA award for the film along with his second Best Documentary prize from The Royal Television Society. The film was a selected entry at the Telluride and Venice film festivals and won the FIPRESCI prize at the San Sebastian film festival. It was also theatrically released in the UK and the US where it played at art house cinemas for over two years.
Marsh’s first ...
After graduating from Oxford University, Marsh worked as a researcher and then a director for the BBC. His breakthrough documentary, Troubleman, (1994) chronicled the last years of soul singer Marvin Gaye and his murder at the hands of his father, a fundamentalist preacher and occasional transvestite. This was followed by The Burger and the King (1996), a documentary about Elvis Presley's bizarre eating habits as told by those who cooked for him at Graceland. The Burger and the King screened at the Montreal and Chicago film festivals and garnered many awards, including Best Documentary from the Royal Television Society.
In 1998, Marsh's documentary profile of Velvet Underground member John Cale earned Marsh a BAFTA award in Wales for Best Music Documentary. In 1999, Marsh completed work on Wisconsin Death Trip - a dramatized documentary about a small town in Wisconsin blighted by outbreaks of suicide, murder and insanity in the 1890s. Marsh won his second BAFTA award for the film along with his second Best Documentary prize from The Royal Television Society. The film was a selected entry at the Telluride and Venice film festivals and won the FIPRESCI prize at the San Sebastian film festival. It was also theatrically released in the UK and the US where it played at art house cinemas for over two years.
Marsh’s first dramatic feature The King, was co-written with Oscar nominated screenwriter, Milo Addica. The King was an Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005. A tale of jealousy and revenge set in a born-again Christian community in Texas, the film stars Gael Garcia Bernal and William Hurt. It was released theatrically worldwide in the spring of 2006. Marsh was nominated for a Gotham Award as Breakthrough Director and the film won Best American feature at the Philadelphia film festival.
In the summer of 2003, Marsh photographed, directed and edited the observational documentary, The Team, in collaboration with New York based filmmaker Basia Winograd. Made for the BBC, the film charts the efforts of a group of homeless men in New York City to organize a soccer team to compete in the inaugural Homeless World Cup in Graz, Austria.
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