Going in to watch “Crash Reel,” I hadn’t known a thing about it. As the documentary by Lucy Walker, starring Kevin Pearce, a one time Olympian hopeful raised on the hills of Vermont, began, there was a lot of rustling going on in the room. With popcorn bags and warm cookies offered to the audience, there was the sound of munching and crackling bags as the beginning of the movie started by showing Youtube style clips. Until suddenly the room turned silent. You could hear a pin drop.
The moment the film concluded, spontaneously and synchronistically the entire room was on its toes, a sustained and heartfelt applause for Keven and Adam Pearce, who wre present at the showing.
So moving and sobering is “Crash Reel.” More than just meeting Kevin Pearce, a one-time snowboarding superstar who, before slamming his head while practicing a trick on a half pipe in Utah, was beginning to eclipse Olympian Shaun White, then at his peak. At its heart, this movie is about Kevin’s remarkable and inspiring family, the brotherhood of his siblings and his process of coming to terms with a broken dream that can never be, as much as it is about Kevin’s snowboarding and the traumatic brain injury (TBI) he suffered.
“Crash Reel” is a documentary that speaks of coping with broken dreams — when life is so completely diverted, requiring one to come to terms with abuse, injury, childlessness, war or any other loss that derails the trajectory of one’s life. It’s a documentary that demonstrates one of the powerful ways of coming to terms with loss: friend-love and, more deeply, family-love.
Although Kevin has no regrets about his past and would still encourage extreme sports or competitive snowboarding, you can’t help but feel the documentary is also a cautionary tale about extreme sports. A lot of questions arise in this film, such as the constellation of factors and roles of all those involved in creating the snowboarding industry, such as the sponsors. In one split second Kevin’s life changes from being an Olympian hopeful to fighting for his basic survival.
While we see Kevin in his healing journey, and the struggle and terror that it entails for him and his family, we also see free skiing pioneer and champ, beloved Sarah Burke, who tragically didn’t make it.
As one of the people closest in the world to Kevin, knowing what makes him tick, or not, Adam, Kevin’s older brother, leaves his life completely and joins Kevin at Craig Hospital here in Colorado for eight hours a day, months at a time. Adam is at Kevin’s side throughout the therapy sessions he endures.
David, Kevin’s younger brother, has Down Syndrome. It is he who is able to blatantly say to Kevin what everyone else in the family is thinking, but is too scared to say.
The documentary is an intimate portrait of Kevin processing this new life of his, altering the course he has been thrown off of.
Kevin was a superstar athlete. Now, his body, his doctors, his cherished family, are all trying to explain to Kevin — in his brain traumatized state — that he cannot continue to snowboard.
There is tension.
Whereas most people so badly hurt would be wary of returning to a situation or site of injury, Kevin is just the opposite. He wants to just pop back up, and go flying down the mountain.
He doesn’t understand or accept the gravity of his situation, that his life is now different. It is impossible to pick up where he left off.
Through serious conversations circled around the dinner table with family, mindful meals that begin with a pause as the echoed ring of a Tibetan bowl reaches its silence, we see some of these difficult conversations.
Through everyone’s rational and emotional concern for Kevin, it is finally only David who cuts through the discussion, by saying bluntly “I don’t want you to die,” that makes an impression on Kevin, causing something within him to shift.
It is the Pearce parents who have woven this incredible brotherhood among their children. As viewers of the film, you witness their unconventional wisdom, strength, honesty and, ultimately, love.
At different points in the film, we see Kevin struggling through the process of Kubler-Ross’s five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and, ultimately, acceptance.
But the twist here is, add on one more stage: inspiration. This is the essence of the movie. While the documentary is about Kevin Pearce’s head injury, it is our, the viewers’ hearts, that are effected by Kevin and the entire Pearce family’s love.
P.S. Check out the Pearce family’s project that has grown out of this harrowing experience: Love Your Brain. It focuses awareness on traumatic brain injury and raises funds for those suffering from it.
Copyright © 2014 by the Intermountain Jewish News
