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Many documentarians have a type: Werner Herzog, the expressive eccentric; Errol Morris, the unreliable powermonger. And then there’s Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, who clearly have a thing for subjects whose enormous undertakings inflect and reflect their relationships.
The husband-and-wife team won an Oscar for just such a portrayal in 2018: Free Solo, about Alex Honnold’s death-defying ascent of El Capitan. Then, Chin and Vasarhelyi immediately graduated to the ambitious recreation-heavy documentary The Rescue (2021), about the 2018 cave extraction of a trapped Thai soccer team.
Their latest, Wild Life, explores the unprecedented conservation efforts of Doug and Kris Tompkins, who helped create a Chilean national park system by donating 15 million acres of unspoiled wilderness.
The Tompkins’ personal histories fall into Chin and Vasarhelyi’s outdoor adventure wheelhouse. Doug Tompkins founded The North Face and shared near-mythic climbs and treks with his best friend, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard (who appears in the film). Kris Tompkins, the former Patagonia CEO, becomes the documentary’s focal point as she reckons with her husband Doug’s untimely death and how to see their ecological vision through.
Before Vasarhelyi visits Cinema 21 for a May 5 screening of Wild Life, we caught up with the couple to discuss creative partnerships, climbing legends, and giving away fortunes.
WW: Why are you drawn to documenting seemingly impossible undertakings?
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi: It’s this idea of human possibility. I find it really moving. All of these films have something in common that way. Despite the odds, these divers figured out how to save 13 strangers [The Rescue]. Alex [Honnold] had an audacious dream and he put in the work [Free Solo]. Here, the physical stakes are not quite the same, but the Tompkinses put everything on the line.
Do your films often feel impossible to execute in the early stages?
Vasarhelyi: This one was different. Jimmy knew Doug well, but this was the first time I’d made a film about someone I never met. The sheer time frame we were trying to cover from the 1960s to today and the complexity of these people’s lives…it’s an impossible pitch. But the constraints are the opportunities. We have this blind faith we’ll figure it out. What’s Doug’s line, Jimmy?
Jimmy Chin: Commit, then figure it out.
Jimmy, what did Doug Tompkins and Yvon Chouinard mean to you as a young rock climber?
Chin: They really defined the lifestyle that I aspired to. Yvon defined the ethos of climbing. Obviously, he also recently committed his company [Patagonia] to fund saving the planet.
What’s it like for you two, as life partners and creative partners, to spend so much time inside another couple’s story?
Vasarhelyi: I think it’s all very romantic. I’m always humbled by the love that [Kris and Doug] shared and how Kris had to assume her own voice after Doug died.
Chin: When you have a great partnership like that, you’re more than the sum of the parts. That’s especially true for our filmmaking. We couldn’t make the same films on our own.
Vasarhelyi: And also…really? They created 17 national parks, and we can’t figure out [school] drop-off?! [Laughs]
What’s the shared characteristic among Kris, Doug and Yvon that makes them willing to donate fortunes?
Vasarhelyi: It comes down to this ethos of Doug and Yvon being climbing partners, dirtbag climbers. They went out into the world with nothing and created themselves. It’s a humility, which is a funny thing to say about billionaires. But [Kris and Doug] weren’t billionaires at the time. Kris and Doug did this with about $130 million cash, and the rest was priceless 25 years of work. Yvon said the other night that you’re born naked and you’re going to die naked, so how much do you really need?
You knew the subjects well beforehand, so what surprised you while shaping Wild Life?
Vasarhelyi: It’s this idea of regeneration, second chances, and the courage to take those steps, like leaving your role as the CEO of Patagonia when all your best friends live in this one little town in California and you move to another country and fall in love. It’s this idea of being inspired and finding another life. Kris does that again after Doug dies. Doug and Yvon are legends, but we really found the movie when we actually embraced that this is Kris’ story.
Chin: None of the participants settled ever. They’re always examining their lives and thinking about what more they can do.
SEE IT: Wild Life plays at Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st Ave., 503-223-4515, cinema21.com. Friday-Thursday, May 5-May 11. $9-$11.