Oscar®-winner Kevin Macdonald’s (One Day in September) film on Simon Yates and Joe Simpson’s attempt to scale the Siula Grande is the most successful documentary in British cinema history. We all know Yates was forced to cut the rope attaching the two climbers, leaving Simpson for dead when infact he survived through some miraculous fluke. Real life truly trumps fiction in this gripping true tale of human endurance, psychology and sheer horror.

In this introduction to the screening Dr Angela Piccini discusses what went in to making the film, its reference points, its critical reception and its socio-cultural importance around the entaglement of fact and fiction.

Dr Angela Piccini is Senior Lecturer in Screen and Head of Education in Drama at Bristol University. She has a BA in English / Art History from University of British Columbia (1990) and an MA and PhD in Archaeology from the University of Sheffield. She is a visiting scholar at the University of British Columbia.

Posted on Mon 31 May 2010.

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