Lord of the Winds puts you in the heart of a paramotor adventure across incredible New Zealand. Eight powered paraglider pilot start for one very ambitious journey. Unfortunately, they don’t all finish. This is their story.
The pacing, music and narration are all top notch and even includes some very high end animations. As one who has been working on animation, I especially appreciate the effort that went into these. And they’re appropriate, too, with clear presentation of their subject such as rotor and parachutal stall.
It’s meant for a non-technical audience and will be enjoyed by those both in the sport and outside. It’s an adventure tale, with the trials and tribulations that come with taking such a fragile craft accross such a rugged land.
The eight pilots are a mix of skill levels who undertake many challenges. As you would expect, weather played a huge part of this nearly two-week mission. New Zealand, being an not-so-wide island serves up some rapidly changing weather that, occasionally, doles out unpleasant surprises.
There was one very, very serious mishap that, amazingly, was captured on video by what had to be a professional videographer. He stayed rock solid on the target, avoiding the urge to run, after a crash that looked like it should have been fatal. You’ll see, I won’t spill the beans here for those who’d like to discover it on their own.
In one case, a pilot is shown having a front tuck on launch and the audio suggests the wing got prop-chewed. But we see the wing again later and so I have to think it either wasn’t as bad as it sounds or they repaired it right there.
The scenery is amazing. They incorporated ground crew and aerial footage in a visually compelling manner that also furthers the story. It is very polished.
This is not at all merely flying and music. In fact, there are only a few, well-placed pieces of that. It is narrated in an interesting manner that keeps it moving. At no point did it drag. Clearly producer Till Middelhauve is not on his first round of documentary making. We are the lucky recipients of his talents.
It’s a Russman quality adventure through an gorgeous land with our favorite aircraft. At 47 minutes it’s a great little treat to show your non-flying friends what the sport is all about, too.