iwonder: January highlights

Streamer iwonder enters the new year with new adventure sport documentaries, exploring the space where adventure, ambition, history, and culture come together.

The Will to Fly
17th January
Winner of Best World Documentary at the Whistler Film Festival, this inspirational film tells the extraordinary story of Olympic aerial skiing gold medalist, Lydia Lassila, as she strives to become the first woman in history to perform the most complex and dangerous manoeuvre of any acrobatic sport – a quadruple twisting, triple somersault on skis Combining incredible sports archive footage and interviews with Lydia, her family and coaches, the film charts her rise from aspiring young gymnast to freestyle skiing champion and her incredible return to the sport after motherhood, as she aims to do what no woman has ever done before.

The Rivals
19th January
Rumford is a blue-collar town in the rugged Western mountains, supported by a dying paper mill that is losing jobs almost daily. Cape Elizabeth is a wealthy, coastal paradise for doctors, lawyers, and type A personalities.
Residents of these two towns only meet in one place: the High School Football field. Rumford’s team has won 6 conference and 2 state championships in the last 20 years. Cape Elizabeth’s team is only 3 years old, but the town has so much money and drive that they are already threatening Rumford’s football dynasty. The rivalry is personified in the two coaches: Rumford’s legendary Jim Aylward vs. Cape Elizabeth’s fiery young Aaron Filieo. For Filieo’s ‘Cape kids’ the future is bright; the new Astroturf is always green. Filieo must inspire the privileged kids to fight for something that does not come easily. Aylward wants to give his Rumford kids something to be proud of before they enter the workday grind of life in a struggling mill town.

A Little Bit Mongolian
24th January
A Little Bit Mongolian is the charming story of Angus, a 12-year-old boy from Australia who dreams of being the first foreigner to win one of Mongolia’s biggest horse races, the Naadam. Angus travels to the stunning straights of Mongolia with his family and searches for a trainer to take him on, in a heart-warming and often dangerous journey of discovery, where the stakes are high and there can be only one winner.

The Bikes of Wrath
26th January
Oklahoma to California: 2600 kms, 420 dollars, 30 days, 5 bikes, 5 Aussies, 2 guitars, and one of the most influential novels of the 20th century; The Bikes of Wrath is the story of adventure, human connection, and an in-depth look at inequality and disenfranchisement in today’s America through the lens of John Steinbeck’s seminal novel, ‘The Grapes of Wrath’. Through chance encounters with everyday Americans, five Aussie travelling companions explore the novel’s core themes – migration, inequality and the perceived land of opportunity – and how the nation has progressed decades after its first publication. Through countless acts of generosity from small-town individuals and communities, to desolating encounters with ‘unwanted’ Americans, the cyclists experience first-hand the startling parallels of the novel in a country still grappling with the same issues today, and ultimately, its own sense of identity.

Swim
31st January
More people have climbed Everest than swum the Channel between England and France – 34 kilometres of treacherous sea. With a moving musical score from Damon Albarn, this remarkable documentary profiles the modern-day endurance swimming community and the unlikeliest of athletes who risk it all. A story of those who seek to push their limits.