The New York Times Shows a Short Film about People Who Are Trying to Jump from 10 Meters

Industry February, 3 2017 Glib Savchenko

The filmmakers studied how people cope with their fear.

The New York Times published a documentary by Swedish filmmakers Maximilien Van Aertryck and Axel Danielson called Ten Meter Tower, Colossal writes. To film it, the authors offered 67 volunteers $30 if they agree to jump into the water from a ten meter high dive — none of them has done jumps like this before.

The 16-minute film shows how the participants of the experiment cope with this task. Not all of them could conquer their fear: some needed only several seconds to decide to jump, others could not do it even after long preparations.

“In our films, which we often call studies, we want to portray human behavior, rather than tell our own stories about it,” the authors of the short film, which was recently premiered at Sundance Festival, say. “Ten Meter Tower may take place in Sweden, but we think it elucidates something essentially human, that transcends culture and origins. Overcoming our most cautious impulses with bravery unites all humankind.”