Sunshine Superman

A CNN-Norwegian co-production, Sunshine Superman looks back on the life and legacy of extreme sports figure Carl Boenish, a skydiver who invented the dangerous feat of BASE jumping—i.e., leaps from cliff faces, towers, skyscrapers and other low-altitude fixed structures. While he was an engineer at Hughes Aircraft, the outgoing Boenish started filming his own skydiving, even landing a behind-the-scenes role doing aerial footage for John Frankenheimer's 1969 parachute drama The Gypsy Moths. Later, Boenish specialized in freefalling cinematography, capturing amazing (pre-video, pre-GoPro) celluloid of skydivers. Boenish met and married Jean—portrayed here in period re-enactments by first-time director Marah Strauch, niece of a BASE enthusiast—who turned out to also be an adrenaline junkie. That Boenish, who obsessively filmed/archived all of his antics, isn't being interviewed here is a rather obvious tipoff that something must have gone awry, and we are walked through the 1984 stunt—contrived for a David Frost/Guinness Book TV special—that ended his life. In the aftermath, Jean's decision to continue to BASE jump earned the widow much criticism. An intriguing don't-try-this-at-home biographical documentary, this is recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include film subject Carl Boenish's “filmpoem” shorts “Sky Dive!” (15 min.) and “Masters of the Sky” (14 min.), a “Flying Dream” making-of featurette (10 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for an interesting extreme sports biography.] (C. Cassady)