Philippe Petit, the ‘man on wire’. First watching this documentary, Man on Wire, something like five years ago, all this talk of interviewing one another and documentary making inspired me to re-visit this inspiring piece of work.

This hour and a half documentary on Philippe Petit had me hooked from the beginning until the very end- who is this man? Did he actually walk a tightrope between the twin towers? How had I never heard of this? How did he get away with it? How did he do it unharnessed? All these questions buzzed through my mind while watching this piece. But while my curiosity nudged me to find answers to these questions, I also found myself wanting to know the characters of this story that was unfolding. I wanted to know more about Philippe himself as well as his wife- how did she feel about possibly losing the man she loved?

It dawned on me then that this was what makes a great documentary or interview, one that not only tells a gripping story or is able to engage you simply with its subject matter, but one that has you connect with the people telling this story that they have.