Twenty-something
street lugers Sean Mallard and Wade Sokol would do anything
for each other based on a bond built racing street luges
60 miles an hour, elbow-to-elbow, and two inches from the
speed-blurred pavement. Along with a wildly glib band of
fellow street lugers, Sean and Wade attempt to stay on top
as they navigate a dangerous luge race circuit for a ticket
to the X Games.
Intense and philosophical,
22-year-old skysurfer Sean MacCormac spins through the air
falling over 200 miles per hour in what he bluntly calls
"human body flight." On the ground, he criss-crosses
the country in a motor home to chase the best skydiving
and deals with the reality of a bad year for skysurfing
accidents.
Fresh faced
16-year-old BMX stunt rider Mike Parenti signs a sponsorship
deal with a major bike company and immediately hits the
road to compete in contests. With the full support of his
loving--and worried--Mom, Mike struggles with the pressure
of budding super-stardom and the risk of broken bones as
he fights to make a name for himself.
It
is 1999, and a ground swell of change is underway in the
world of sports. Baseball, football, and basketball often
don’t cut it for brash young people raised in the too-hip,
media-obsessed television age. New, more visceral sports
with attitude are exploding in popularity alongside strip
malls all over America. The ESPN X Games, the Olympics of
extreme sports, has become the most watched television sporting
event by young males and is now broadcast to more than 180
countries in 20 different languages. Extreme sports have
arrived. But these new sports have risks. They demand that
athletes skillfully deal with either unfathomable heights,
explosive speeds, or both. Participants and spectators are
forced to deal with the risk of injury as bodies are pushed
to the edge, and sometimes beyond. What drives people to
face the danger and what accounts for the phenomenal growth
of these sports?
Xtreme:
Sports to Die For is a rare documentary action film
that takes viewers inside a rapidly growing and frenetic
world of risk, rebellion and camaraderie, and asks why some
are so willing to put their bodies on the line. In the gritty,
painful world of dirt bike stunt riding, the speed-obsessed,
gutsy brotherhood of street luge, and the spiritual intensity
of skysurfing, we ask why these often thoughtful young people
put themselves at risk--even at times flirting with death--as
they try to create meaning in their lives.
Directed
by Oscar winners Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, and produced
by their San Francisco based production company Telling
Pictures for HBO's "America Undercover" series,
the high-octane story follows the lives of four athletes
on the road to the X Games--and glory. The film captures
both the pulse of the young people and the high-speed rush
and raw danger of their new sports. Xtreme reveals
what life is like for the young people with heart and soul
who aren’t satisfied with the every day:
Other characters
include pink leather wearing Pam Zoolalian, the first woman
to qualify to compete in street luge at the X Games, and
the skysurfing team of Troy Hartman and Joe Jennings who
both lost their previous partners to skydiving deaths. And
as the athletes make their way from contest to contest,
we will run into the parents, fans, and organizers that
together make-up this now international cultural explosion.
Xtreme:
Sports to Die For follows the action from the quiet
suburbs to the sandy beaches of San Diego for the internationally
televised ESPN X Games. With its camera along for the ride
and often right in the middle of compelling stories, this
documentary captures the highs, the lows, and the bumps
and bruises along the way. Xtreme: Sports to Die For
is an in your face look at the edge of a new revolution
in sports--and what the revolution says about all of us.
