Float

Float is a tale about obsession and passion, about camaraderie and competition, about time and beauty. We envision a documentary that is as much about the intricacies of the sport and the science as the complexity of the people involved. We aim to create a film where the intrinsic elegance and beauty of the planes contrasts the grueling process and competitiveness that goes into making the airplanes fly. The F1D lends itself perfectly to a film with careful attention to detail, one about meticulousness and slowing down in an age of haste and speed.

F1D is antithetical to modern culture. It embodies passion, patience, and practice, whereas today’s mainstream culture can be characterized by instant gratification and short attention spans, increasingly driven by the pursuit of wealth and fame. Indoor is an activity with no financial gain, no entree to fame, but nonetheless the competitors’ drive and ambition prevails. The planes are just one element that binds this odd lot of enthusiasts together. The raw emotion that is felt as competitors invest countless hours, dollars, and travel into their sport with no monetary reward is as impressive as the engineering behind the planes. They are intensely competitive and their fervor contrasts the tranquility and beauty of their planes.

Yes, this is a sports documentary, but we also aim to create a cinematic stunner; the planes floating effortlessly in the salt mines is unlike anything anyone has ever seen. We use a blend of wide angle time-lapse photography to display the length of time the plane stays in the air. Cinematic handheld B-roll follows the competitors movements zeroing in on the pensive state of the fliers. Archival material is displayed in a projection format so that the audience gets a true sense of the films history. Stylistically composed interview footage matches the tone of our characters personalities as well as the beauty of the grace and elegance of the planes.

Our goal for Float is to expose this unknown sport to a wider audience and to preserve the stories of the older competitors, some of whom have passed away during the production of the film. We hope to promote F1D to an audience that is interested in the current rise of STEM education as well as the DIY movement. To achieve these goals, it is our desire to have Float screen in a large market film festival and to have the film distributed to a wide audience.

Our career goals as documentary filmmakers are to continue telling compelling character driven stories focusing primarily on obsessive individuals and obscure communities where passion and fixation are the driving life force of their existence. Float has been an education in how to document the stories we’re interested in telling and we see it as a building block for future projects.

Director

Phil Kibbe

Writer

Phil Kibbe

Writer

Ben Saks

Producer

Laura Heberton

Producer

Ben Saks

Key Cast

Brett Sanborn

Key Cast

Yuan Kang Lee

Key Cast

Cornel Mangaleau

Key Cast

Akihiro Danjo

Key Cast

Nick Aikman

Project type

Documentary, Feature

Genres

Science, Competition, Documentary, History, Aviation, Disability, Senior/aging, Teen/Youth

Runtime

1 hour 21 minutes 4 seconds

Completion date

April 5, 2019

Country of origin

United States

Countries of filming

Argentina, Canada, Japan, Romania, Serbia, United Kingdom, United States

Language

English, Japanese, Romanian

Shooting format

Digital

Aspect ratio

16:9

Film color

Color

First-time filmmaker

Yes

Student project

No

Digital Cinema Package

Unavailable