Man on Wire

Tonight I saw a film with my children that almost bordered on a religious experience for me. It was called Man On Wire. The film is a documentary about Philippe Petit's walk on a cable suspended between the Twin Towers of the New York World Trade Center on August 7, 1974.

Maybe I am just a child of those times, but Petit's adventure seems a non-commercial act of defiance and beauty that is all the more poignant because it will never be repeated.  The film has a religious significance because Petit is drawn to attempt it even before the towers are completed and because he survives the experience, but not unchanged.

The film has won many awards including the Jury Prize and Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, the International Audience Award at the Los Angeles Film Festival and the Standard Life Audience Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.