Reviews of Stealing Altitude
(Did We Coin a Phrase?)_____
"a stylish and unsettling documentary... achieves a grainy, black & white visual
poetry"
- Kevin Thomas, LA
Times
_____
"a literally breathtaking look at men who jump from tall buildings"
- Kenneth Turan, LA
Times
_____
"... remarkable for what it tells us about its
subject..."
- Ken Eisner, The
Georgia Straight, Vancouver BC Canada
_____
"Since they are rarely screened elsewhere, the chance
to see documentaries is one of Park City's most satisfying joys. Whether they are
full length, like Marco Williams' movingly autobiographical "In Search of our
Fathers," or tantalizingly short like "Stealing Altitude," a literally
breathtaking look at men who jump from tall buildings, by USC film school grads John Starr
and Roger Teich, these documentaries alone make the trek to ski country worthwhile."
- Kenneth Turan, LA
Times
reviewing Sundance Film Festival '92
_____
"In my view, the
best is the lone documentary in the
bunch, "Stealing Altitude," a student film from the University of Southern
California, which was also a much-discussed short at the Sundance Film Festival.
This 10-minute black-and-white exercise in
cinema-verite gets right to the point as it chronicles the adventures of "base
jumpers," people who steal into half-constructed high-rise buildings at night, then
wait until dawn to parachute to the street below.
What we witness, of course, is a covert sport, and
the film neither endorses nor condemns the participants, as it shows both the hazards and
the thrills connected with base jumping."
- Chris Hicks
Deseret News movie critic, Salt Lake City, Utah
Deseretnews.com, Salt Lake
City, Utah, online review of The 1st International Festival of Short Films
_____
"Stealing Altitude was one of the strongest films for
me. The University of Southern California filmmakers' shots showing the subject
making pre-dawn parachute jumps from high-rises to major city roads are as powerful as any
Omnimax special effects."
- Ann McLaughlin, The Vancouver Courier, reviewing
1st Annual Festival of Short Films.
_____
"Two of the student films here are excellent.
Stealing Altitude (1990) by two University of Southern California students, is a
jaw-dropping documentary about men who parachute from skyscrapers."
- Elizabeth Aird,
Vancouver Sun, reviewing 1st Annual Festival of Short Films.
_____
"... a 10-minute gripper about a peculiar cadre of
thrill seekers who practice "BASE jumping" in Los Angeles."
- Calvin Ahlgren, San
Francisco Chronicle, reviewing 1st Annual Festival of Short Films.
_____
"The film was outstanding. More than just a
series of launches and free falls from high places. The film told the story of how
jumpers rationalized leaping off buildings with parachutes on their backs... The applause
lasted well after the credits had rolled, and continued as John and Roger were introduced.
It was clear Stealing Altitude was the people's choice for the
evening."
- Nick Di Giovanni,
the Fixed Object Journal, reviewing Stealing Altitude's premier at USC.
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