A mass of humanity falls through the air thousands of feet above the ground. They latch onto each others’ hands and arms, together maneuvering in the sky taking the shape of a giant snowflake. This mesmerizing image, from Marah Strauch’s radiant documentary Sunshine Superman, encapsulates what the film is all about. The film is about skydiving and BASE jumping, yes, but it’s truly about the tight human bond between filmmaker and late pioneer of BASE jumping, Carl Boenish, and his wife, Jean. It’s a sort of documentary romance movie that works two-fold as a thrilling extreme-sports profile.

I spoke to Strauch about what it was like to get to know a deceased man through archival footage over the course of eight years, as well as her experience making a film in today’s indie landscape. Sunshine Superman opens tomorrow, June 5th, in Toronto.

Carl considered himself a filmmaker first. How would you describe his filmmaking style?

He was really interested in capturing the joy of BASE jumping and skydiving. He was an innovator in aerial cinematography. He was strapping cameras to places nobody would have thought to put a camera. I think his style was very simple and direct, and I mean that in a good way. There’s an innocence and playfulness to the way he made films that I think is really charming. There’s a great reenactment in the film that a lot of people think I did, but actually he did it. They were escaping from a building, running down the street.

I think the reenactments you did make were integrated very smoothly. Were you trying to mimic his visual style when you made them?
I didn’t want to create big, theatrical reenactments. I wanted them to feel very personal and not aggrandizing. I wanted them to be really simple and direct, so in that way, I guess I was [echoing his style].

The movie’s not about extreme sports so much as it is about the human bond between Carl and Jean. Was that your vision from the beginning?
The footage is beautiful, but I think the human love story between Carl and Jean became really interesting to me when I met Jean Boenish. I started to really understand their love story. I describe the movie as a love story with BASE jumping as a backdrop. That’s how I always thought of it. I definitely think it’s more about people than BASE jumping.

Carl talks about the spirituality of BASE jumping and sky diving for him. Is filmmaking spiritual for you?
Huh. I’ve never thought about that. I’m not a terribly spiritual person, which is kind of odd because I just made this film. For me, filmmaking is an obsessive activity. I think of it as something that’s very physical and something you don’t take lightly. It’s something that’s a very passionate activity, and whether that’s spiritual or not, I don’t know. 16mm film is something that’s so transcendent to me, almost like it’s spiritual. [laughs] I’m not sure why that is, but having that 16mm film makes for a special experience. I guess it’s nostalgia. Part of what’s great about filmmaking is being around all these people who are doing things that are so interesting. It really puts you in a different place. I don’t know if it’s spiritual, but it’s definitely a journey.

What was it like seeing the movie on a big screen for the first time?
During post production you’re watching it and paying attention to every little thing that’s wrong. [laughs] You’re just like, “Oh my god, my film sucks!” We premiered in Toronto almost a year ago, and it was an amazing experience to watch it with an audience. I think it’s a really theatrical film, and I hope people see it in the theater. It’s a big-scale experience and a very physical experience. I liked watching the audience’s reactions. It was everything I wanted it to be.

It’s a foreign thing to most people, the idea of getting to know someone who’s not with us anymore over the course of eight years. What was that like?
It was a challenge. It’s like being a detective. I think the challenge was making a film about a dead person that was a theatrical, fully immersive experience. We were trying to show a full character portrait of Carl, and looking at it in retrospect, it was an odd idea to do that. But it was clear that he was the central character of the film. As much as possible I would have him narrate and tell stories. He left a lot of audio of himself. A lot of it is on cassette tapes, so we have this film coming out across the country where a lot of the audio is from cassette tapes! The film’s held together a bit with rubber bands and glue. People compare the film to Man On Wire, saying Carl’s not Phillippe Petit, but he’s no longer with us. It’s a different thing. All of the audio is archival. Cassette tapes. [laughs]

Was there a point in the process of making this film where you felt down and weren’t sure this would all come together?
Oh man, I think that still happens! [laughs] Filmmaking is really hard, particularly you first feature. There are a lot of things people don’t tell you about that process. All the parts that have to do with money are the hardest parts. Financing, distribution. Those parts are the least enjoyable. The actual making of the film is a wonderful thing. I hope filmmakers get to do more of that. The other stuff is discouraging, but all you can do as a filmmaker is make the best film you possibly can. Everything else is pretty much out of your control. The business side is frustrating and almost stopped me a couple times. But something Carl taught me, actually, is to ignore artificial complications. If you’re not getting financed, you’ve just got to keep looking. You have to go that extra mile. There were time when I thought about not making this film or any films at all. But then I thought, this man’s legacy wouldn’t have existed without his film, so that’s the biggest payoff.

Can you remember a time when you took a big risk and it paid off?
I think making this film was a big risk. I ran up all my credit cards to make this film. I put everything in. Whether it pays off financially or career-wise I don’t know, but it’s been an amazing opportunity to make this film. When I was financing the film I went to the European film market and said, “I need to finance this film now.” I got it financed over there, so I took a lot of risks. It’s paid off in the sense that it’s satisfying to have completed the film.

Any words of advice for other independent filmmakers?
I think you have to be willing to have your film be a success or not. That can’t be the deciding factor going forward. You have to make film for the love of making film. You have to be involved in this because you can’t do anything else. You need that passion. If you start to not feel that passion, give it a day or two and it’ll probably come back. When people think you’re crazy, which people did when I was making this film, they’re probably right, but you should keep going! [laughs]

Humorous, uplifting, terrifying, heartbreaking, tense and inspirational, normally it’d be nice if a film was able to successfully conjure up just one of these feelings. Sunshine Superman, the fantastic début of Marah Strauch, manages to pull them all off in what is bound to be one of the most entertaining and interesting documentaries of the year. It is the story of aerial cinematographer and creator of BASE jumping Carl Boenish who is responsible for some of the most breathtaking feats to come out of the emerging extreme sport. Carl was an incredibly eccentric, likable and talented aerial cinematographer/BASE jumper whose dedication to both crafts breathes so much life into nearly every moment of the film.

The film starts out with a somewhat overlong introduction to Carl, giving us a glimpse at his early childhood battle with polio as well as stories illustrating his dedication and work ethic. One of the more amusing tidbits being a story of how he beat every boy in his class in a foot race despite difficult circumstances. From there, we see it was Carl’s work on John Frankenheimer’s 1969 film The Gypsy Moths that ignited and fused together his two passions which would eventually lead to the creation of BASE jumping and many thrilling, sometimes illegal jumps. Amidst his skydiving work, Carl began to really test his limits with highly dangerous and exhilarating jumps like the ones he (and others) perform at the rock formation El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. The El Capitan jumps also feature some of the most incredible footage the film has to offer thanks to the wealth of Carl’s footage the filmmakers were able to include as well as the makeshift contraptions Carl would use to elevate the footage beyond the simple point-and-shoot. Most of the film however is focused on two things, Carl’s relationship with his wife, Jean Boenish, and his jumps at the Troll Wall in Norway.

The Norway jumps bring about the most emotional and gripping scenes in the entire film beginning with the lead up to Carl and Jean’s world-record setting jump off the Troll Wall. This section of the film is truly wonderful as the dread and tension that builds in these scenes is among the best editing work I’ve seen in a film this year.

In a film filled with no shortage of death-defying stunts and wildly impressive jump sequences, Jean Boenish quietly becomes the most interesting element of the film. Seen as somewhat of an outsider at first by other jumpers, we see Jean’s development into an incredible BASE jumper in her own right take form over her years with Carl. While both are a little strange and eccentric in some ways, they appear a perfect fit when seen together in Carl’s old 16mm footage. And most importantly, Jean becomes arguably the strongest and bravest person in the film with her accomplishments in BASE jumping and the way she perseveres despite the tragedy such a passion can cause.

Like Jean, Carl is among the most interesting people you’ll find on screen this year. From the beginning of the film Carl is someone to root for and get invested in, one of the most charming personalities in a film this year, and I don’t think there’s a single shot where Carl isn’t sporting the most genuine of smiles. This was a guy who loved what he was doing and inspired those around him. His enthusiasm is so apparent and contagious that you feel like joining him on a thrilling jump, and that’s coming from someone with a crippling fear of heights.

With a documentary that entertains and intrigues as much as this one does, it’s hard to focus on the negative aspects of the film. But one of its biggest issues is Strauch’s over reliance on documentary crutches, such as over-produced reenactment scenes. While meant to make the film more captivating, these reenactments simply distract from subject matter and archival footage that is already so interesting that any cutting away just lessens the effect of the film. At times it rather played like a poor man’s Alex Gibney documentary, relatively unsurprising given Gibney is an executive producer on the film. Still, despite these flaws, Strauch does more right than wrong resulting in an incredible début film.

Sunshine Superman is available in theaters in limited release on May 22.