Andrew Kornylak hooked me up with a copy of his new film that he made in collaboration with Josh Fowler called “A Fine Line”.  Let me say right away that this movie is an art piece and VERY different from the average climbing movie.

At 49 minutes long, “A Fine Line” digs deep into what it means to be a boulderer and the passion and fight behind the love for the sport.  As a dedicated boulderer and film maker myself, I found this piece interesting and beautiful to look at.  I have known Andrew for years.  LT11 uses a production camera he sold us, we have made motion graphics for him, and I have been impressed with his dedication for years.  Andrew has been shooting video forever and it shows.

There are some shots in the film that completely blew my mind.  Amazing composition, superb color, and outstanding quality are standard throughout the movie and the characters emotions really show.  The sound quality from the interviews is top notch and the majority of the words spoken by the athletes are insightful and interesting to hear, especially Jimmy Webb’s thoughts on Dave Graham paying the bills…

I love seeing boulder names and grades in movies that I watch so that I can associate the effort that goes into each problem with the difficulty of the climb.  Andrew’s choice to leave the grading out of the movie is one that I would not have made but again, this is an art piece.  My main criticism is that the movie is paced slower then I would like a bouldering flick to be but it seems to fit the style and the mood throughout the piece.

Overall I think Andrew and Josh have created a quality standard that will be hard to match over the coming years and will hopefully set the bar higher for future movie releases.  Andrew gives bouldering movies a fresh perspective and genuine artistic drive.  He is able to actually deliver a well thought out plot line and tell a story without piecing it together haphazardly.  I think very few producers are able to do this these days, Big Up being the exception, so it is refreshing to see that others are out there doing what works.  A new breed of climbing movies is here and I love where this is going.

$19.99 DVD Preorder – Shipping early October

Go get a copy here.