Daphne Schmon
Down to Earth
Ernesto Gainza stands 4,000 meters above the ground in Dubai, preparing to set a Guiness world record skydiving with the smallest and fastest parachute in history. Experts say he is likely to die, but he jumps. Born in Valencia, Venezuela, Ernesto’s father died the day before he was born, leaving his mother to care for him and his sister single handedly in humble circumstances. After a difficult divorce, Ernesto gave up everything to move to Europe and took a skydiving course. His life changed forever and a career in parachute stunts quickly developed in a dream of setting a world record by April 5, 2014. DOWN TO EARTH follows Ernesto on his remarkable path towards this day. He travels back home to Venezuela for the first time in years, struggling to make sense of the dangerous life he chose and find acceptance from a father he left behind. More than a story of human resilience, this is a story of a man who must risk his life to come to terms with his past. In the end Ernesto’s will to survive is not for the world record, but to come down to earth to find his way home.
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Children of the Wind
Children of the Wind' tells the story of the Bonaire windsurfers, a group of native Caribbean kids, who under the mentorship of the remarkable Elvis Martinus, founder of the Bonaire Aquaspeed windsurfing club, overcame insuperable odds to not only dominate an inherently elitist sport but to revolutionize it. The film focuses on brothers Tonky and Taty Frans and their cousin Kiri who come from a poor fishing family and began windsurfing before the age of ten, using whatever broken or discarded equipment they could scrounge, and who are now, twenty years later, global superstars. Tonky, Taty and Kiri burst onto the international scene in 2001 when, along with thirty or so other Bonaire sailors, they attended windsurfing’s North American Championship in Florida. Given the island’s economic status, just getting to Florida was an achievement in itself. Once there, they caused a sensation, taking home twenty trophies between them. Given that Bonaire has a population of under 15,000 and had, at the time, no way to fund formal training facilities, provide equipment or pay for travel to events, this accomplishment was simply astonishing. The Frans brothers and Kiri are now among the top five freestyle windsurfers in the world and have become local heroes on their island. More remarkable: Bonaire continues to produce young champions at every age category of the ProKids World Championship, which started on the island. Set against the backdrop of the 2011 Freestyle Windsurfing World Cup on Bonaire, 'Children of the Wind' is an exciting tale of kids who refused to be defined by the limits of their circumstance, and consequently transformed a sport.
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