“Space Cowboy” is the perfect title for this American documentary. Joe Jennings is a cowboy of the air as a high-altitude camera flyer where air represents the Oregon Trail. His camera has caught sky diving stunts and sky surfing competitions. Sky surfing is an extreme sport were a parachutist jumps out of a plane on a sky board performing a routine somewhat akin to a figure skater, ballerina, snowboarder and breakdancer. A camera flyer is part of the team. Both the surfer and camera flyer are high performance athletes.
And it can be very dangerous for both the surfer and the camera flyer. Yes, there is the illusion of peacefully floating in the air but it is a descent at high speed and one wrong move may be death. The camera flyer must carefully move around the sky surfer and do flips and twists to capture the sky surfer. The camera flyer is no passive participant in sky surfing.
Jennings began by filming first time jumpers moving to being a flying cameraman for sky surfers. In a sky surfer competition a surfer requires a flying cameraman to participate. Jennings then moved to filming stunts for films and making innovative commercials. Jennings’ good friend Rob Harris died in Vernon, British Columbia filming a James Bond stunt when his complicated equipment malfunctioned. Another French sky surfer Jennings had worked with also died in Hawaii.
In “Space Cowboy” Jennings works on a project to drop a car from an airplane with chuted passengers in it. The first attempt failed despite modifications to the car to keep it stable in the fall. It spun wildly and dangerously. Further modifications were made to the car and the film concludes with incredible cinematography that is stunning, mesmerizing and addictive. Addictive in that is so beautifully captured you are compelled to watch it again and perhaps again!
Although the cinematography is the star in “Space Cowboy” we learn about Jennings in his own voice and those of friends and family. Battling depression after the deaths of his two friends he struggled to jump again. Sky falling is the main subject of the film but Jennings free fall into depression is also recounted.
The co-directors are Marah Strauch and Bryce Leavitt.
Festival runs in October are Hamptons International Film Festival, Heartland International Film Festival, Newport Beach Film Festival and Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.
RKS 2024 Film Rating 93/100.
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