Acting
Pemba Gyalje Sherpa was born in northern Nepal and grew up in the shadow of Mount Everest. His experience as a professional mountain guide has taken him to the Alps and Himalaya, including to the summit of Everest on seven occasions.
For nearly three years, director Dina Khreino interviewed world-class mountain climbing athletes, listening to what compels them to leave behind families, friends, and everyday comforts to risk everything for a fleeting glimpse into the unknown. What she found was a tribe, a diverse group of professional adventurers and amateur philosophers forged by the ultimate test of body, mind, and spirit. In the face of shifting winds, sheer granite cliffs, and impossible odds, they climb. Each for their own reason, but every one connected by the vertical world. In this rarefied air, these athletes are fundamentally changed, not just as climbers, but as human beings.
2019