“Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story“ had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival where it received an overwhelmingly positive response from critics and audiences for its inspiring and moving look at the work and life of the late great actor, husband and father, Christopher Reeve. The documentary film’s directors Ian Bonhôte & Peter Ettedgui were both kind enough to spend some time talking with us about the making of the film which you can watch or read below. The Warner Bros. film will have a limited theatrical release on September 21st and 25th, in collaboration with Fathom Events. There will be an encore presentation on September 25th to coincide with what would have been Reeve’s 72nd birthday. Please take a listen (or read below) and enjoy. Thank you!
Thank you both so much for joining me today to talk about your really emotional, really amazing documentary, “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story.”
Thank you so much for the lovely introduction.
I was at the world premiere at Sundance. I cried my eyes out. That was such an emotional world premiere. But I’m curious to know, the first thing that struck me when I was watching this documentary unfold is that you guys chose to tell it in a non linear fashion. Can you tell me whether or not that was the plan from the get go, or is that something that you discovered in the editing process?
PETER: No, it was from the get go really. I mean, you know, the problem often with doing a biographical film, whether it’s scripted or nonscripted, is something that you can very easily get into is going “and then this happened, and then that happened, and then they went there,” and it’s episodic, and it just, everything has equal weight. So, how do you lift a biographical story and turn it into a film story? And I think we felt very strongly that the real three-act story in this film was the point; the lowest ebb of the story was when Christopher wakes up after his accident and realizes that maybe it’s not worth living because he can’t breathe on his own. He can’t, he’s quadriplegic. The prognosis is really not good. And how do you then discover a sense of something to live for a new, fresh purpose? How people rallied around him, lifted him, how he lifted them, how he went out into the world as an advocate. That’s an unknown story for a lot of people. And then you could sort of like what we realized is when we laid that story out and put it with the story of his life before the accident, there were all these sort of like little rhymes and mirrors and callbacks that we could sort of like somehow used to segue between past the flashbacks to his life before his accident, which has a nice narrative arc itself and a story as you put it earlier.
Yeah. Because you guys had unbelievable access to so many interviews with people I would not have expected to hear from in this, has there been anyone that you did not interview who following the world premiere screening of this film that, have reached out to you and said, “Wow, this really moved me” or just gave you a high compliment?
IAN: No, I don’t think that anyone actually did. I think our way of making films is that we’re very, very careful not to overdo the interviews, and we like each of our interviewees to almost become a character in the film. So it’s if we suddenly have loads of people talking about pre-fame or talking about what Superman meant or just too many family members, five brothers and sisters, etc. We sparingly use the people. So they all, and each of the audience can start identifying and get a connection with the people because we don’t want commentators that just have one liners. You know, there are certain films that use that. That’s not the way we work.
So, we want each of the characters to take on a role, and then we can grow from that. But yeah, no, no one actually reached out to us after that. We have a lot of people reaching out saying how much they were moved by the story, how much they felt they knew about Chris and Superman, and how much the film brings more to light, especially on the level of activism and trying to push the boundaries with research.
We’ve had four or five main actors who worked with Chris, either that Chris directed them or that they all worked with him, and they all became very close friends. And I think it was probably our easiest piece of work where, you know, people are not straight away. You don’t reach them. You sometimes talk to the people that work with them, but everyone said, yes, there’s no one who said, “Nah, I don’t want to talk. I don’t know this guy.” Sometimes, we needed to push them a little bit, but they said Chris was a good guy, and everyone was really willing to talk about him.
Yeah. Well, I think this documentary is definitive on his life, his work, the people he touched. I will never forget that premiere screening and the response from that audience, it was truly moving. I think so many audience members all over the world are going to feel the same way. Peter, Ian, congratulations to both of you and thank you so much for your time.
Thank you.
“Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” is scheduled to receive a limited theatrical release in collaboration with Fathom Events in the United States on September 21st and 25th. You can watch the trailer below.
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