180° South

In 1968, Yvon Chouinard, Doug Tompkins and Lito Tejada-Flores were part of a group that drove from Ventura, California, to Patagonia to climb a new route on Mt. Fitzroy. The epic trip spawned a great mountaineering film (Fitzroy) and two major outdoor companies (Patagonia and The North Face). Four decades later, director Chris Malloy followed mountaineer Jeff Johnson as he tried to retrace part of the route and recapture the same spirit on his own trip to South America. Of course you can’t just recreate an epic, but if you bring Timmy O’Neill along, sprinkle in the wisdom of Chouinard and Tompkins and fortuitously pick up a beautiful surfer girl from Easter Island, you can create a lovely and thoughtful film. 180° South is about the true nature of adventure and how it’s changed and how it hasn’t. —DH