For the third year in a row, the Vimeo Staff Pick Award is coming to Mountainfilm Festival and we couldn’t be more excited. From the virtual mountains of Telluride, CO, the second Vimeo Staff Pick Award Winner of 2021 is Josephine Anderson’s “On Falling,” a documentary exploration of three professional mountain bikers as they meditate on injuries, vulnerabilities, and the will to push forward.
From high speed crashes to anecdotes on love, Anderson operates from the premise of falling in a supremely critical yet lighthearted fashion. She even establishes a play between dream state and reality through gorgeous editing: echo chamber-like sequences intersect with slow-mo action to put us through the clouds, archived crash footage from previous races grounds us soon after.
At any particular time we’re learning about what has made these three women tough people, but what makes this film extra special is the range of that exploration. Anderson moves from hilarious side notes to deeply personal introspection with ease, and it results in a film that gives us more humanity than it does sport.
Encased in a whimsical soundtrack that tingles the senses, with questions that hit harder on second impact, Anderson’s “On Falling” registered with our team, and continues to register with nationwide audiences from Tribeca to Vancouver.
Ahead of the release, we caught up with Josephine Anderson to talk process, challenges, and how she personally processes the act of falling.
On inspiration:
Josephine Anderson: "I live near some of the world's most legendary mountain bike trails, but have always been too afraid of falling to take up mountain biking myself. Also, I’ve seen how treacherous a bike fall can be. A couple of years ago, my sister was in a road bike crash that damaged her face, knocked out several teeth, and gave her a serious concussion.
With this film, I wanted to explore the way pro mountain bikers are willing to take risks that so many of us avoid, and more generally, to contemplate the choices we make to subject ourselves to risk and vulnerability."
On process:
JA: "As some of the world’s most accomplished mountain bikers, the women featured are frequently filmed, but what I proposed was pretty unorthodox. We did film interviews and classic ride footage, but we also asked them to collaborate in filming experimental scenes with us.
The intention was to explore the idea of falling both literally and metaphorically, and this guided everything we did. We ended up editing most of the film off the grid while camping on a small island, which was a really special and unforgettable process."
On challenges faced:
JA: "I learned early on that falling is not a popular topic for pro mountain bikers. These riders spend a lot of energy managing their psychology, and work hard to avoid dwelling on falls, so that fear won’t overwhelm their mental game when they descend the next hill. Luckily, all the riders featured in the film were willing to open up that part of themselves, and were generous with sharing their thoughts and stories.
Ultimately, the film is an exploration of vulnerability and how they combine that with incredible power and fortitude. It’s because of their willingness to be vulnerable, both to the physicality of the sport as well as to their own internal process, that they’re able to keep showing up to the sport they love."
On advice to up and coming filmmakers:
JA: "I’ve found that being really prepared and organized in advance of a shoot can allow you more freedom to be impulsive and experimental once you’re filming. Have a really clear sense of your intentions for each scene before every shoot day, and make sure your core crew is all on the same page. This will free you up to go down unexpected rabbit holes, filming unplanned scenes on the fly, while retaining confidence that you’re roughly on track with the kind of footage you need to build your film."
On what she wants viewers to take away:
JA: "I wanted to create a visceral and psychologically-layered exploration of falling that would speak to non-athletes and sports junkies alike. My hope is that the film will pull viewers into an emotional and imaginative headspace, to consider the idea of falling in a new way, from the perspective of three of the world’s most accomplished mountain bikers."
On how this film changed her:
JA: "I still don’t see myself mountain biking! But making this film made me see that ruminating and dwelling on “falls” should only have so much space in life. Making this film was a really beautiful reminder to lighten up and let those experiences flow past more freely so we can be open to what’s next."
On what's next:
JA: "I’m currently working on a feature documentary about a group of teenage girls on a curling team, and on an experimental VR documentary that contextualizes human life within the massive expanse of geologic time."
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