Can a climber justify playing a game of Russian Roulette with a Sherpa’s life, to make the trip of a life-time up a melting Mount Everest?
Winner of the Grierson Award at the 2015 BFI London Festival and an official selection of the 2015 Telluride Film Festival, SHERPA: Trouble on Everest looks at how Mount Everest’s Sherpa community united in grief and anger to reclaim the mountain following this devastating avalanche in 2014, killing 16 Sherpas. Directed by Jennifer Peedom (“Solo”), SHERPA features exclusive access with members of the Sherpa community, their families, and western adventurers who were getting ready to climb Mount Everest before the tragic event. The film highlights this volatile time in the Everest climbing industry, which served as a turning point for many of the Sherpas and their families as they considered whether to continue working on the mountain.
“Visually magnificent…richly textured…packs an emotional punch” – VARIETY
“Exquisitely crafted film” – LA TIMES
About the filmmaker:
Jen Peedom is a BAFTA nominated director, well-known for her gripping, intimate portraits of people in extreme circumstances. Her credits include the internationally renowned documentaries MIRACLE ON EVEREST, LIVING THE END and SOLO, which played in the Official Selection of major documentary festivals including IDFA and Sheffield and won numerous awards including an AFI for Best Documentary.
About the special guest:
John Hoffman, serves as Executive Vice President, Documentaries and Specials for Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, and Science Channel. He has oversight for all development activities for documentaries and specials, produces original documentary programming from development through production, commissions and acquires films and specials, and is responsible for developing cross-platform programming.
Before joining Discovery, Hoffman served as CEO of The Public Good Projects, a non-profit production company he founded in 2013 to provide innovative media that makes complex health problems easier to understand so people can take better care of themselves and their families. His company’s first film, Sleepless in America, explored the sleep loss epidemic in the U.S., and aired on National Geographic Television in 2014. Hoffman served as both director and executive producer on the film.
Earlier, Hoffman was a part of HBO Documentary Films for 17 years where, in addition to his executive role as vice president, he most recently executive produced and directed the multiple-Emmy®-nominated The Weight of the Nation, the groundbreaking four-part documentary series, featuring case studies and interviews with our nation’s leading experts and the stories of individuals and families struggling with obesity.
Hoffman’s work has received numerous awards, including five Prime Time Emmy® awards with 14 nominations. Additional honors include a Peabody Award, two duPont-Columbia awards, and nine News & Documentary Emmy® Award nominations, among others. Hoffman is a graduate of Cornell University and is based in New York.
