As you file listlessly from the train platform to the fluorescent-lit office cubicle to your too-expensive flat, it’s easy to daydream of a more adventurous, impulsive life. It’s this longing that powers The Search For Freedom, an exhilarating and inspiring documentary from Jon Long, featuring the cream of action sports. Released on DVD and on
The post The Search for Freedom Review appeared first on HeyUGuys.
The post The Search for Freedom Review appeared first on HeyUGuys.
- 8/10/2015
- by Lewis Bazley
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Universal
Rating: ★★★
The Search For Freedom is more a search for a shared experience. It tells the story of extreme sports in a broad manner, plucking at the history of what it seems to suggest all started out as loner and anti-social sports and then revealing – through talking heads with achingly cool icons – what it all means in personal terms. For fans of the industry, it’s something of an essential watch, even if it is a little slight on substance.
The over-riding feeling is that the film is something of a supermodel film. It’s not vapid – by any means – but it’s almost entirely invested in how good it looks.
That much shouldn’t be all that surprising, given that it’s directed by IMax veteran Jon Long, who has built a career capturing extreme moments on film and celebrating them in as stunning a definition as humanly possible.
Rating: ★★★
The Search For Freedom is more a search for a shared experience. It tells the story of extreme sports in a broad manner, plucking at the history of what it seems to suggest all started out as loner and anti-social sports and then revealing – through talking heads with achingly cool icons – what it all means in personal terms. For fans of the industry, it’s something of an essential watch, even if it is a little slight on substance.
The over-riding feeling is that the film is something of a supermodel film. It’s not vapid – by any means – but it’s almost entirely invested in how good it looks.
That much shouldn’t be all that surprising, given that it’s directed by IMax veteran Jon Long, who has built a career capturing extreme moments on film and celebrating them in as stunning a definition as humanly possible.
- 8/7/2015
- by Simon Gallagher
- Obsessed with Film
The Earth Network, Abramorama, GrindTV, Tugg and Vimeo are collaborating on the Us theatrical release of The Search For Freedom, a documentary produced by The Earth Network.
The film will receive a one-day theatrical release on June 10 in more than 75 theatres nationwide.
Tugg will enable encore screenings throughout June and July.
eOne and Universal are releasing The Search For Freedom on VOD in Canada and the rest of the world on August 10.
Jon Long wrote and directed the film that celebrates action sports and living in the moment and features interviews with skateboard legend Tony Hawk, world champion surfer Kelly Slater, modern-day ‘Evel Knievel’ Robbie Maddison and climbing icon Ron Kauk, among other.
The Earth Network’s Jon Long brokered the deal with Abramorama’s Richard Abramowitz and Thought Engine’s Karol Martesko-Fenster as well as Nicolas Gonda on behalf of Tugg, Jeremy Boxer on behalf of Vimeo and Aaron Carrera on behalf of GrindTV.
The film will receive a one-day theatrical release on June 10 in more than 75 theatres nationwide.
Tugg will enable encore screenings throughout June and July.
eOne and Universal are releasing The Search For Freedom on VOD in Canada and the rest of the world on August 10.
Jon Long wrote and directed the film that celebrates action sports and living in the moment and features interviews with skateboard legend Tony Hawk, world champion surfer Kelly Slater, modern-day ‘Evel Knievel’ Robbie Maddison and climbing icon Ron Kauk, among other.
The Earth Network’s Jon Long brokered the deal with Abramorama’s Richard Abramowitz and Thought Engine’s Karol Martesko-Fenster as well as Nicolas Gonda on behalf of Tugg, Jeremy Boxer on behalf of Vimeo and Aaron Carrera on behalf of GrindTV.
- 6/1/2015
- ScreenDaily
Opens
Thursday, April 22
In this well-intentioned celebration of nature and traditional ways of life, giant-screen images feel generic when they should inspire wonder. With unwieldy large-format equipment, the filmmakers have ventured into places mainly untouched by Western technology, but the fruits of their labor are devoid of drama or urgency.
"Sacred Planet", which the Walt Disney Co. is bowing on Earth Day, has family appeal but will click especially as an educational item. It would be a worthy discussion-sparker in elementary school curricula. On the other hand, Imax aficionados -- and filmgoers who like a good, or any, story with their natural history lesson -- will find far better examples of the genre in such current offerings as the 3-D feature "Bugs!" and "Volcanoes of the Deep Sea".
One of the powers of large-format film is its ability to immerse the viewer in otherwise inaccessible environments, presenting the smallest details in glorious magnification. By contrast, "Planet" suffers from its survey approach. Traveling to five regions -- California/Utah/Arizona, Namibia, Thailand, coastal British Columbia/southeast Alaska and Borneo -- the film follows a seemingly arbitrary course from one to the next, begging many questions along the way about the endangered communities it visits.
The husband-and-wife team of director-editor Jon Long, who made the 1999 Imax feature "Extreme", and writing-producing partner Karen Fernandez Long don't identify the groups of indigenous people they've filmed. The docu often shows them looking into the camera, in long takes that lose their charge after the first two or three times they appear.
Voice-over narration, whether by longtime environmental activist Robert Redford or tribal elders, is, like the film as a whole, lacking in specificity. "Native voices" -- unattributed to particular tribes, traditions or people -- wax eloquent on the interconnectedness of all life, the animating force of spirit and the healing power of storytelling and art. But however laudable, and important, it is to listen to people who still live in close harmony with the earth, helmer Long distances rather than involves the viewer. The intent might be a sense of mystery; the effect is didactic vagueness.
DP William Reeve and his intrepid colleagues have captured picturesque, occasionally breathtaking, views of exquisite places: primordial forests, desert rock formations, paradisal waterfalls and mist-enshrouded jungles. There are disappointingly brief glimpses of rock pictographs, totem poles and rituals, and the planet's fauna make cameo appearances. The most exhilarating sequence is shot at treetop level, alongside giraffes galloping across an African plain. Time-lapse scenes of a frenetic city (Bangkok), meant to strike sharp contrast with the serene settings, are repetitious interruptions that add little beyond visual echoes of "Koyaanisqatsi", without the impact.
SACRED PLANET
Buena Vista Pictures
A Walt Disney Pictures presentation of a New Street/Allied Films production
Credits:
Director-editor: Jon Long
Writer-producers: Karen Fernandez Long, Jon Long
Executive producer: Jake Eberts
Director of photography: William Reeve
Native voices: Arapata McKay, Tsaan Ciqae, Mae Tui, Cy Peck Jr., Mutang Urud
Narrator: Robert Redford
Running time -- 46 minutes
MPAA rating: G...
Thursday, April 22
In this well-intentioned celebration of nature and traditional ways of life, giant-screen images feel generic when they should inspire wonder. With unwieldy large-format equipment, the filmmakers have ventured into places mainly untouched by Western technology, but the fruits of their labor are devoid of drama or urgency.
"Sacred Planet", which the Walt Disney Co. is bowing on Earth Day, has family appeal but will click especially as an educational item. It would be a worthy discussion-sparker in elementary school curricula. On the other hand, Imax aficionados -- and filmgoers who like a good, or any, story with their natural history lesson -- will find far better examples of the genre in such current offerings as the 3-D feature "Bugs!" and "Volcanoes of the Deep Sea".
One of the powers of large-format film is its ability to immerse the viewer in otherwise inaccessible environments, presenting the smallest details in glorious magnification. By contrast, "Planet" suffers from its survey approach. Traveling to five regions -- California/Utah/Arizona, Namibia, Thailand, coastal British Columbia/southeast Alaska and Borneo -- the film follows a seemingly arbitrary course from one to the next, begging many questions along the way about the endangered communities it visits.
The husband-and-wife team of director-editor Jon Long, who made the 1999 Imax feature "Extreme", and writing-producing partner Karen Fernandez Long don't identify the groups of indigenous people they've filmed. The docu often shows them looking into the camera, in long takes that lose their charge after the first two or three times they appear.
Voice-over narration, whether by longtime environmental activist Robert Redford or tribal elders, is, like the film as a whole, lacking in specificity. "Native voices" -- unattributed to particular tribes, traditions or people -- wax eloquent on the interconnectedness of all life, the animating force of spirit and the healing power of storytelling and art. But however laudable, and important, it is to listen to people who still live in close harmony with the earth, helmer Long distances rather than involves the viewer. The intent might be a sense of mystery; the effect is didactic vagueness.
DP William Reeve and his intrepid colleagues have captured picturesque, occasionally breathtaking, views of exquisite places: primordial forests, desert rock formations, paradisal waterfalls and mist-enshrouded jungles. There are disappointingly brief glimpses of rock pictographs, totem poles and rituals, and the planet's fauna make cameo appearances. The most exhilarating sequence is shot at treetop level, alongside giraffes galloping across an African plain. Time-lapse scenes of a frenetic city (Bangkok), meant to strike sharp contrast with the serene settings, are repetitious interruptions that add little beyond visual echoes of "Koyaanisqatsi", without the impact.
SACRED PLANET
Buena Vista Pictures
A Walt Disney Pictures presentation of a New Street/Allied Films production
Credits:
Director-editor: Jon Long
Writer-producers: Karen Fernandez Long, Jon Long
Executive producer: Jake Eberts
Director of photography: William Reeve
Native voices: Arapata McKay, Tsaan Ciqae, Mae Tui, Cy Peck Jr., Mutang Urud
Narrator: Robert Redford
Running time -- 46 minutes
MPAA rating: G...
Opens
Thursday, April 22
In this well-intentioned celebration of nature and traditional ways of life, giant-screen images feel generic when they should inspire wonder. With unwieldy large-format equipment, the filmmakers have ventured into places mainly untouched by Western technology, but the fruits of their labor are devoid of drama or urgency.
"Sacred Planet", which the Walt Disney Co. is bowing on Earth Day, has family appeal but will click especially as an educational item. It would be a worthy discussion-sparker in elementary school curricula. On the other hand, Imax aficionados -- and filmgoers who like a good, or any, story with their natural history lesson -- will find far better examples of the genre in such current offerings as the 3-D feature "Bugs!" and "Volcanoes of the Deep Sea".
One of the powers of large-format film is its ability to immerse the viewer in otherwise inaccessible environments, presenting the smallest details in glorious magnification. By contrast, "Planet" suffers from its survey approach. Traveling to five regions -- California/Utah/Arizona, Namibia, Thailand, coastal British Columbia/southeast Alaska and Borneo -- the film follows a seemingly arbitrary course from one to the next, begging many questions along the way about the endangered communities it visits.
The husband-and-wife team of director-editor Jon Long, who made the 1999 Imax feature "Extreme", and writing-producing partner Karen Fernandez Long don't identify the groups of indigenous people they've filmed. The docu often shows them looking into the camera, in long takes that lose their charge after the first two or three times they appear.
Voice-over narration, whether by longtime environmental activist Robert Redford or tribal elders, is, like the film as a whole, lacking in specificity. "Native voices" -- unattributed to particular tribes, traditions or people -- wax eloquent on the interconnectedness of all life, the animating force of spirit and the healing power of storytelling and art. But however laudable, and important, it is to listen to people who still live in close harmony with the earth, helmer Long distances rather than involves the viewer. The intent might be a sense of mystery; the effect is didactic vagueness.
DP William Reeve and his intrepid colleagues have captured picturesque, occasionally breathtaking, views of exquisite places: primordial forests, desert rock formations, paradisal waterfalls and mist-enshrouded jungles. There are disappointingly brief glimpses of rock pictographs, totem poles and rituals, and the planet's fauna make cameo appearances. The most exhilarating sequence is shot at treetop level, alongside giraffes galloping across an African plain. Time-lapse scenes of a frenetic city (Bangkok), meant to strike sharp contrast with the serene settings, are repetitious interruptions that add little beyond visual echoes of "Koyaanisqatsi", without the impact.
SACRED PLANET
Buena Vista Pictures
A Walt Disney Pictures presentation of a New Street/Allied Films production
Credits:
Director-editor: Jon Long
Writer-producers: Karen Fernandez Long, Jon Long
Executive producer: Jake Eberts
Director of photography: William Reeve
Native voices: Arapata McKay, Tsaan Ciqae, Mae Tui, Cy Peck Jr., Mutang Urud
Narrator: Robert Redford
Running time -- 46 minutes
MPAA rating: G...
Thursday, April 22
In this well-intentioned celebration of nature and traditional ways of life, giant-screen images feel generic when they should inspire wonder. With unwieldy large-format equipment, the filmmakers have ventured into places mainly untouched by Western technology, but the fruits of their labor are devoid of drama or urgency.
"Sacred Planet", which the Walt Disney Co. is bowing on Earth Day, has family appeal but will click especially as an educational item. It would be a worthy discussion-sparker in elementary school curricula. On the other hand, Imax aficionados -- and filmgoers who like a good, or any, story with their natural history lesson -- will find far better examples of the genre in such current offerings as the 3-D feature "Bugs!" and "Volcanoes of the Deep Sea".
One of the powers of large-format film is its ability to immerse the viewer in otherwise inaccessible environments, presenting the smallest details in glorious magnification. By contrast, "Planet" suffers from its survey approach. Traveling to five regions -- California/Utah/Arizona, Namibia, Thailand, coastal British Columbia/southeast Alaska and Borneo -- the film follows a seemingly arbitrary course from one to the next, begging many questions along the way about the endangered communities it visits.
The husband-and-wife team of director-editor Jon Long, who made the 1999 Imax feature "Extreme", and writing-producing partner Karen Fernandez Long don't identify the groups of indigenous people they've filmed. The docu often shows them looking into the camera, in long takes that lose their charge after the first two or three times they appear.
Voice-over narration, whether by longtime environmental activist Robert Redford or tribal elders, is, like the film as a whole, lacking in specificity. "Native voices" -- unattributed to particular tribes, traditions or people -- wax eloquent on the interconnectedness of all life, the animating force of spirit and the healing power of storytelling and art. But however laudable, and important, it is to listen to people who still live in close harmony with the earth, helmer Long distances rather than involves the viewer. The intent might be a sense of mystery; the effect is didactic vagueness.
DP William Reeve and his intrepid colleagues have captured picturesque, occasionally breathtaking, views of exquisite places: primordial forests, desert rock formations, paradisal waterfalls and mist-enshrouded jungles. There are disappointingly brief glimpses of rock pictographs, totem poles and rituals, and the planet's fauna make cameo appearances. The most exhilarating sequence is shot at treetop level, alongside giraffes galloping across an African plain. Time-lapse scenes of a frenetic city (Bangkok), meant to strike sharp contrast with the serene settings, are repetitious interruptions that add little beyond visual echoes of "Koyaanisqatsi", without the impact.
SACRED PLANET
Buena Vista Pictures
A Walt Disney Pictures presentation of a New Street/Allied Films production
Credits:
Director-editor: Jon Long
Writer-producers: Karen Fernandez Long, Jon Long
Executive producer: Jake Eberts
Director of photography: William Reeve
Native voices: Arapata McKay, Tsaan Ciqae, Mae Tui, Cy Peck Jr., Mutang Urud
Narrator: Robert Redford
Running time -- 46 minutes
MPAA rating: G...
- 4/22/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The 44-minute film consists of six short sections devoted to skiing, snowboarding, surfing, windsurfing, rock climbing and ice climbing, with each activity carried, of course, to its most extreme level. Basically, it's "Wide World of Sports" carried to the nth degree, with a natural emphasis on the visual aspect. Insights to the mindsets of those participating in such hazardous activities are in short supply, with most commentary being of the "addicted to the thrill" variety.
There's no denying the visual grandeur of Jon Long's film, which is filled with soaring mountain peaks, sheer walls of ice, 40-foot waves and athletes, many world champions among them, whose bodies are toned to perfection. Among those participating are Lynn Hill and Nancy Feagin, seen climbing a series of steep mountains in Utah; Catherine Mulvihill and Barry Blanchard, climbing a frozen waterfall in British Columbia; Ross Clarke-Jones and Ken Bradshaw, riding impossible waves in Hawaii; Gordy Peifer, skiing down a 50-degree mountain face in Alaska; and quartets of snowboarders and windsurfers who, it's safe to say, do things you've never seen before.
There are some stylistic excesses, including an overuse of speeded-up photography a la "Koyaanisqatsi" and an irritating, repetitive series of shots of a sea turtle. The atmospheric music, largely composed by DJ Free and Soulfood, is an evocative blending of electronica, world music and chants.
EXTREME
Presented by SAAB
A Beyak, Long, de Jong Franken Production
Director:Jon Long
Producer:Neils de Jong Franken
Executive Producer:Peter Beyak
Color/Stereo
Running time -- 44 minutes
No MPAA rating...
There's no denying the visual grandeur of Jon Long's film, which is filled with soaring mountain peaks, sheer walls of ice, 40-foot waves and athletes, many world champions among them, whose bodies are toned to perfection. Among those participating are Lynn Hill and Nancy Feagin, seen climbing a series of steep mountains in Utah; Catherine Mulvihill and Barry Blanchard, climbing a frozen waterfall in British Columbia; Ross Clarke-Jones and Ken Bradshaw, riding impossible waves in Hawaii; Gordy Peifer, skiing down a 50-degree mountain face in Alaska; and quartets of snowboarders and windsurfers who, it's safe to say, do things you've never seen before.
There are some stylistic excesses, including an overuse of speeded-up photography a la "Koyaanisqatsi" and an irritating, repetitive series of shots of a sea turtle. The atmospheric music, largely composed by DJ Free and Soulfood, is an evocative blending of electronica, world music and chants.
EXTREME
Presented by SAAB
A Beyak, Long, de Jong Franken Production
Director:Jon Long
Producer:Neils de Jong Franken
Executive Producer:Peter Beyak
Color/Stereo
Running time -- 44 minutes
No MPAA rating...
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