A documentary following the development and fight for official recognition of the new sport of "Ski Jumping Pairs" has been showing in selected cinemas in the UK. The feature length film, structured from 3 TV length episodes, contains interviews with the sport's inventor and pioneering competitors in Japan.
The early work was all sponsored by Fischer who produced the bespoke Tandem binding on 2m60 skis...
We were fortunate enough to see it at the ICA London this evening where I spoke to the film's director,
Riichiro Mashima, afterwards. I asked him if he'd been tempted to try to get some of the real ski jumpers involved in the film to perform a jump in Tandem. He said "Yes, but they didn't seem ready yet. Perhaps in 15 years or so.You know, the human advances".
This film is hilarious! A little bit Spinal tap and a tad Monty Python but on a 45 degree icy slope
It was begun as a 5 minute long computer generated college project but interest and aclaim has fed its growth into a string of DVDs in Japan and now a full length feature.
"Ski Jumping Pairs - Road to Torino 2006" can next be seen at the ICA London at
17:00 on
June 11th.
ICA Box Office: 020 7930 3647
Ski Jumping Pairs