SPACE COWBOY
Premiered at TIFF 2024
Joe Jennings, a pioneer of skydiving cinematography, looks back on a lifetime of creating iconic moments in film and television while he tries to pull off his most ambitious stunt yet, turning a dreamlike vision into reality.
"Critic’s Pick." Indiewire
"Kind, caring, and plummeting to Earth like the rest of us, Joe Jennings is the hero that will remind you to save yourself.” Indiewire
CLIP FROM SPACE COWBOY
"If you were to find entire dinette sets, automobiles and living rooms — with people sitting in them — tumbling Earthward from the clouds, you might think “Okay, so End Times really are a thing.” But it could also be the handiwork of “Space Cowboy” subject Joe Jennings, a “freefall cinematographer” who’s made a specialty of devising and filming such surreal stunts. Coming a decade after Marah Strauch’s first feature “Sunshine Superman,” about BASE jumping pioneer Carl Boenish (also an aerial cameraman), this new doc provides a thematically and stylistically overlapping companion piece." Variety Dennis Harvey
Vice Versa: Chyna The documentary Vice Versa: Chyna investigates the rise and tragic fall of the WWF superstar. “Wrestling her and wrestling guys was no different; she just hit a lot harder than guys,” Gunn says in the film. “She was the main thing. She was the ‘Stone Cold’ [Steve Austin]. It was Chyna like that was a thing.”
Director, Producer, Writer: Marah Strauch Producer, Editor: Eric Bruggemann
DP: Tony Johansson
Executive Producers: Mark Myers, Daisy Hamilton
Companies: Citizen Skull, Rock Skull, Scissor Kick Films, Vice
Trailer Vice
Sunshine Superman: A heart-racing documentary portrait of Carl Boenish, the father of the BASE jumping movement, whose early passion for skydiving led him to ever more spectacular – and dangerous – feats. Experience his jaw-dropping journey in life and love, to the pinnacle of his achievements when he and wife Jean broke the BASE jumping Guinness World Record in 1984 on the Norwegian ‘Troll Wall’ mountain range. Incredibly, within days, triumph was followed by disaster. Told through a stunning mix of Carl’s 16mm archive footage, well-crafted re-enactments and state-of-the-art aerial photography, Sunshine Superman will leave you breathless and inspired.
Executive Producers: Josh Braun, Dan Braun, Alex Gibney, Marah Strauch, Eric Bruggemann
Director, Producer, Writer: Marah Strauch
DP: Vasco Nunes, Nico Poulsson
Editor Eric Bruggemann, Marah Strauch
Companies: Submarine, Scissor Kick Films, Flimmer Films, Universal Pictures International, CNN, Magnolia Pictures
"GRADE A - EXHILARATING. A THRILL RIDE. One of the best docs of the year. Reminiscent of Man on Wire and Senna."
- John Anderson, Indiewire
Trailer Universal: Pictures "The adrenaline rush and sensational euphoria of Sunshine Superman provide the same distinctly cinematic adventure that one might have experienced behind 3D glasses during Alfonso Cuarón’s fiction film Gravity at TIFF last year. Strauch, however, frames Boenish’s extraordinary footage within a deeply philosophical context that meditates upon the rights and limits of human experience. It’s simply one of the most profound and breathtakingly life-affirming films of the year, and the scope of the theatrical experience is essential for re-creating the high Boenish feels each time he soars."
- Patrick Mullen, POV Magazine