“10 Questions with LA Film Fest Filmmaker Spotlights” is a series of posts to help you get to know our Festival filmmakers and their films just a little bit better.

Lucy Walker

FILM: The Crash Reel / Summer Showcase

With today’s sports pages now routinely covering safety and health controversies alongside athletic achievements, this up-close chronicle of snowboarder Kevin Pearce’s experience with traumatic brain injury could not be more timely. An extreme-sports god who was quickly gaining on legend Shaun White, Pearce’s coma-inducing wipe-out during training for the 2010 Olympics devastated all. While his recovery was miraculous, the urge to compete again sparked an entirely different battle: between Kevin’s will to recapture something and the will of his family and doctors to keep him safe.

Using a dazzlingly edited mixture of competition footage, personal video and revealing interviews with Pearce’s family, colleagues and rivals, Academy Award-nominated documentarian Lucy Walker has assembled a bracing, inquisitive narrative about risk, reward, consequence and personal agony.

1. Who are you and what do you do?

I’m Lucy Walker and I’m a filmmaker — I produced and directed The Crash Reel, which I’m so thrilled to say will be playing June 16 and 17 at the LA Film Fest!

2. Tell us about your film in 140 characters or less:

The dramatic story of an mindblowing athlete Kevin Pearce, an eye-popping sport snowboarding and an explosive issue Traumatic Brain Injury.

3. Who were your early filmmaking mentors or inspirations?

I had two teachers at NYU film school. The legendary Barbara Kopple who taught me everything I knew about documentary. Plus an incredible Russian teacher Boris Frumin who was a huge influence on so many of my classmates, he was brutal in his challenges to us to make “strange, soulful, lyrical, never-before-seen films” not “bad, boring, generic” work. Also the brilliant documentaries Streetwise and Hoop Dreams were the hugest inspiration.

4. What inspired you to make this film?

I’m always looking to make the best possible films, and to push the documentary genres, to experiment with doing something a bit differently, and to tell a story that is as important as possible, and that hasn’t been told adequately yet. I met Kevin Pearce serendipitously and was immediately struck not only by him personally but also the potential of this story and this world to make a mind-blowing documentary.

5. Who or what influenced the creative decisions for this film?

I don’t know if I’ve seen a film like it before and it was a pretty original venture into the unknown… then again I love watching documentaries and there are so many who have inspired me. Senna is a good example — I loved that film and thought it was brilliant how they managed to tell the story so emotionally using licensed sports footage. At the other extreme, teen fiction films like The Outsiders spring to mind as well, with beautiful, brave young people in danger. I love music and it was really fun to work with the musical artists on the soundtrack as well — from Chemical Brothers to Lykke Li.

6. What challenges did you face while making this film?

Gosh. So many. We managed to track down archival footage from 232 different sources (and many of them very flaky sources!) as well as doing a lot of original shooting so it was a huge job for a tiny team of us in the editing room.

7. What’s been the coolest experience so far with the film?

Kevin’s brother David, who has Down Syndrome, got up on stage at the world premiere which was Opening Night at Sundance. Somebody in the audience asked him if he could accept his disability (because we see him struggle to accept it in the movie). He nodded and said now that he’d watched the movie, he could accept his Down Syndrome. I was up on stage with the whole family and the whole film team and we all had tears in our eyes!

8. Are you a film festival newbie or have you done the circuit before?

The Crash Reel is my fifth feature – and if I’ve also made a bunch of shorts that have played extensively at festivals – so I’m an oldie at this point! However this is the first film to be invited to the LA Film Fest, which is a big thrill.

9. How are you preparing for the festival and/or getting the word out about your film?

We are having a big party after our first screening so it’s been fun to organize that. I’m on twitter at @lucywalkerfilm as well and the film is @thecrashreel, so please follow us and like us on Facebook at facebook/thecrashreel.

10. Lastly, what are you most excited to do and/or see at this year’s LA Film Fest?

This is a hometown premiere for us. The film was made in LA. So the whole team will be here. Plus Kevin Pearce himself lives in Carlsbad, CA. In fact, a whole lot of action sports stars live in So Cal. So the screenings of The Crash Reel are going to be extremely special.

The Crash Reel Screenings at the LA Film Fest

• Sunday, June 16 4:30 pm
• Monday, June 17 7:10 pm

The Crash Reel tickets on sale at the door or online now »