LOGLINE
This free-to-watch web series explores the challenges of rock climbing after parenthood through short conversations with parents who are well-known pro climbers.
SYNOPSIS
If you have ever felt the impossibility of pursuing a passion after a significant life change, you are not alone. This free-to-watch interview web series explores the challenges of rock climbing as a parent through short conversations with parents who are well-known pro climbers: Beth Rodden, Majka Burhardt, Eddie and Anna Taylor, and Jon and Jess Glassberg, among others.
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
The series depicts separate interviews conducted by a recreational climber with years of climbing experience and connections in the outdoor industry and parents who are professional climbers at their homes. The discussions are set to quiet hopeful music and artistic scenics of climbing destinations (e.g., Yosemite National Park and Cathedral Ledge State Park). The interviewer and interviewees will share challenges and limitations as parents and climbers that have rarely been shown in mainstream climbing and outdoor media. The aim of artistic choices is to create an intimate feeling between the audience and interviewer and interviewee, promoting empathy and connection from viewers. For new parents in the audience, they should relate deeply to the experiences shared that parallel their own. The audience feels compassion for the person in frame as they share candid parenting and climbing stories and surprise at the depth of challenges the interviewee experienced, as augmented through the interviewer's surprised responses shown on camera. The interviews will be shot in warm, colorful lighting on two tripod-mounted cameras, in a neutral medium close-up frame on each subject. Scenics and b roll will incorporate tripod, gimbal, and slider shots as well as drone footage to capture the expansive and majestic nature of exposed rock ledges and climbing area. The interviewer and interviewee build rapport with each other through meditating on the first moments as post-partum parents and sharing comedic parenting fails as well as vulnerable moments touching on postpartum recovery, nursing, returning to the physical pursuit of climbing, and feelings of isolation from the community and comparisons to other families and online portrayals. The audience is brought into the comradery they create and shared experiences as climbers and parents to promote the revelation that we are not alone.
KEY CREW
Samuel Crossley - Cinematographer
Samuel Crossley worked on the Oscar-winning film, Free Solo, and does whatever it takes to safely document athletes as they push themselves in remote areas and high risk situations. Samuel's commercial and editorial work has been for National Geographic, Google, Red Bull Media House, The North Face, Arc’teryx, REI, Reel Rock, MasterClass and ABC News, among others. Samuel lives his professional life openly gay and is passionate about revealing diverse stories from within the climbing and outdoor community.
Taylor Keating - Editor
Taylor is a documentary filmmaker with notable credits including The Incredible Lamont (2022), Queen Maud Land (2018), Of Choss and Lions (2017), Stumped (2017), and Safety Third (2017). He also served as Videographer at the Colorado Ballet.
George Baker Jr. - Camera Production Assistant
George has a BA in Photography from California State University and a studio in Oakland, CA. His clients include: Twentieth Century Fox Television, AbbVie, Bank of America, Bristol Myers-Squibb, Constellation Brands, Fleishman Hillard, WeWork, Plantronics, Suffolk Construction, A.T. Kearney, VOX Global, Cisco Systems, Company20, Jet Blue, Build Group of Companies (Pacific Structures, Pro-Shore, Level 5) NK Interactive, Western Allied Mechanical, Offset Design Partners, Kermit Lynch Wine Merchants, Compass Consulting, PayZen, News & Review Group, Gatto Rivera Design, Velos Mobile, and Touchstone Climbing.
Allyson Gunsallus - Director/Producer
Allyson is a California-licensed attorney with an international law degree from Duke University School of Law and bachelor's in linguistics from Boston University. She has diverse experience in event production and fundraising and has been a climber since 2006. Within the climbing community, she has held numerous leadership positions, including on the boards of directors for the American Alpine Club and Yosemite Climbing Association. In her first few weeks as a new parent, Allyson felt isolated and overwhelmed alongside her feelings of awe at her newborn. She wondered if she would ever get back to climbing, a passion she’s pursued since 2006. When she couldn’t find many realistic resources online, she started Wellspring Climbers LLC to create what she would have wanted to see in her first few months postpartum. Her goal is to produce a mental health resource for parents and families who enjoy the outdoors: a free-to- watch film series of interviews. Through leveraging her experience in business, law, and on boards of two notable climbing non-profits, she has lined up discussions with parent athletes to explore the questions that were most critical to her as a new mom.
ACCOLADES
The The Gotham Film & Media Institute fosters the development, production and promotion of hundreds of feature and documentary films a year. Learn more about us or become a member
