Former Faribault-Area Student Nominated For Academy Award
Jimmy Chin, a former Shattuck-St.Mary student and Carleton College graduate has been nominated for an Academy Award for his recent documentary "Free Solo". The film is about a climber who climbs El Capitan without a rope. Chin co-directed “Free Solo” with his wife, E. Chai Vasarhelyi. He also is the documentary's cinematographer and producer.
The film was nominated for best documentary at tonights Oscar's. No matter how the film does tonight, Chin knows it's an award-winner as it has already claimed best documentary at the British version of the Academy Awards earlier this month. Other awards that "Free Solo" has won since it debuted at the Telluride Film Festival in August of 2018; The Peoples Choice Award for documentaries at the 2018 International Toronto Film Festival.
The film profiles rock climber Alex Honnold, on his quest to perform a free solo climb of El Capitan in June 2017. According to The Numbers, a website for how much a movie has brought in, "Free Solo" has raked in over $19 Million!
Chin's website says that after Chin graduated from Carleton College "he moved into his 1980 Subaru Loyale wagon" and went "fully nomadic for seven years, following the seasons to climb and ski in Yosemite, Red Rocks, Canyonlands, Bozeman, Mammoth, Jackson, Bishop, and anywhere else he can find a place to park."
According to the Mankato Free Press, Chin and his wife also co-directed “Muru,” which won the Sundance International Film Festival Audience Award in 2015. The film follows Chin and two others as they climbed the Muru Central in India.