“It’s in the wild places, in the damp clean air of an ancient forest, on a heaving ocean with unpredictable winds, on a snowy summit at the top of the world that I enter my own personal cathedral, and know where I fit in the vastness of creation,” says Jim Whittaker. On May 1, 1963, Whittaker became the first American to summit Mount Everest. 50 years later he sits down with filmmaker Eric Becker. The short film compiles archival Everest footage and gorgeous landscape cinematography, with the sage advice of the now 83-year-old mountaineer. “Being out on the edge, with everything at risk, is where you learn and grow the most,” says Whittaker. “You gotta have scars!”
The Seattle based filmmaker recently won an Emmy for his documentary portrait of photographer Aaron Huey's work inside the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. For more work from Eric Becker, visit his production company's website We are Shouting.
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