{"id":2363,"date":"2019-06-02T08:00:56","date_gmt":"2019-06-02T13:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/?p=2363"},"modified":"2019-06-02T09:26:36","modified_gmt":"2019-06-02T14:26:36","slug":"any-one-of-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/any-one-of-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Any One of Us (2019, dir. Fernando Villena): Mountainfilm Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Tp4PQqgDSCQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Going into the Mountainfilm 2019 screening of <em>Any One of Us,<\/em> nearly every audience member knew that professional mountain biker Paul Basagoitia was going to suffer a devastating accident leading to a spinal cord injury.\u00a0 The film had been advertised for this very plot point\u2013\u2013only those in the audience who had blindly followed their friends into the theater could be surprised and even then, the presenter would have spoiled it for them.\u00a0 Fortunately, director Fernando Villena was very aware of this fact and used it to the film\u2019s advantage.<\/p>\n<p>Injury-related documentaries are fairly common, to the point where the scene of the protagonist recounting their accident is a given; often, it feels like the film can\u2019t begin until it\u2019s gotten that particular scene out of the way.\u00a0 Rather than attempt to force suspense that isn\u2019t there, Villena combats this weariness by approaching the accident with the audience\u2019s mindset of inevitability.\u00a0 As Basagoitia rides his mountain bike down a steep incline and propels himself off the cliff\u2019s edge, the audience winces slightly, imagining the accident to come.\u00a0 But it doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 Basagoitia completes the trick and returns to the top of the cliff for another go.\u00a0 Meanwhile, voiceover narration from multiple people recount the details of the accident as the footage cuts from Basagoitia performing his stunts to their interview footage.\u00a0 Yet, as more and more people speak, it becomes apparent to the viewer that there are too many people recounting this story and too many details that don\u2019t add up, leading to the realization that the interviewees aren\u2019t recounting Basagoitia\u2019s accident\u2013\u2013they\u2019re recounting their own.<\/p>\n<p>While initially confusing, the directorial choice soon proves astute: as the stories become more and more tense, Basagoitia\u2019s stunts become all the more agonizing to watch.\u00a0 Over and over, he flies down the cliff and safely lands at the bottom, leading to audible gasps and cringes in the audience.\u00a0 The repetition rackets up the tension in a way that a single accident scene could not, and it leads the audience to somehow, irrationally, hope that maybe there won\u2019t be an accident. Until finally\u2013\u2013inevitably\u2013\u2013there is, and Basagoitia metaphorically joins the ranks of the voiceover speakers.<\/p>\n<p>This joining of the ranks is a powerful motif that continues throughout the film.\u00a0 Just as a spinal cord injury can happen to anyone, regardless of whether they participate in extreme sports\u2013\u2013which is what the title, <em>Any One of Us<\/em>, references\u2013\u2013Basagoitia\u2019s story is highly relatable and representative of any one of us.\u00a0 The camera is given few restrictions: viewers watch as he struggles to urinate and shower and even discusses his ability to have sex.\u00a0 Much of this early struggle was documented by Basagoitia himself as something to do while recuperating.\u00a0 While the footage could have played as gratuitous, it instead enforces the devastation of the injury and makes it feel painfully real for the viewer.<\/p>\n<p>Villena\u2019s directorial choice to include interviews from other injured people is especially effective in illustrating how real and common these injuries are.\u00a0 While Basagoitia is sufficiently charismatic to shoulder the film alone, having a diverse group of people sharing their stories in tandem only increases the audience\u2019s sense of pathos.\u00a0 As the film explains, spinal cord injuries are as unique and varying as they people who get them, so it is unreasonable to expect everyone to heal the same way.\u00a0 There are no rules when it comes to these injuries, and Basagoitia\u2019s confusion and anguish towards his recovery process is reflected in all of those who have experienced it as well.\u00a0 Their inability to define their experience and manage their expectations for recovery only increases their commonality.<\/p>\n<p>The film makes no attempt to condemn extreme sports\u2013\u2013although the characters struggle with mixed feelings in regard to it\u2013\u2013nor does it make any attempt to form one overarching message about recovery.\u00a0 It rather documents the struggle that everyone with a spinal cord injury shares and the uncertainty that it brings.<\/p>\n<p>As the film drew to a close that evening, there weren\u2019t many dry eyes in the audience, and when, during the question and answer session, Villena approached the stage along with Basagoitia himself, everyone stood and cheered.\u00a0 From there, an emotional discussion developed as audience members shared personal experiences with spinal cord injuries and mused on how to best support loved ones.\u00a0 The night was transformed from a feeling of predictability in regard to the \u201ctragic accident\u201d film to a feeling of shared solidarity in the face of life\u2019s unpredictability.\u00a0 Nearly all who attended left seemingly uplifted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Going into the Mountainfilm 2019 screening of Any One of Us, nearly every audience member knew that professional mountain biker Paul Basagoitia was going to suffer a devastating accident leading to a spinal cord injury.\u00a0 Fortunately, director Fernando Villena was very aware of this fact and used it to the film\u2019s advantage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":2366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[80,20],"tags":[124,14,33,32],"class_list":["post-2363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-left","category-reviews","tag-any-one-of-us","tag-brynn-artley","tag-documentary","tag-mountainfilm"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/05\/image-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2363"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2438,"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2363\/revisions\/2438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}