Our recent post about the trans-Nepal 1999 paragliding classic Kingdom of the Clouds prompted a response this week from Neal Michaelis, a US pilot who was out in Nepal paragliding at the same time.
He and his team also made a film about it. Neal wrote:
Saw your post on Rob and Bob’s 1999 Nepal film footage. I was in Nepal in the same year at the same time filming an xc adventure as well.
We ran into their BBC crew as we arrived in Kathmandu. Coincidentally we launched from one of the very same spots they did along the Annapurna trail.
We were searching out places to start an xc from just above Gandrung and the Nepalese owner of that plot of land came out to talk to us and asked us if we knew “Rob and Bob”.
He told us they had used that very spot the week before. At the time we couldn’t believe it and thought we were just off the back and getting scooped by the BBC with their big budget and big name pilots.
But we quickly realized that we were making a very different type of film about XC. The film we made is “A Higher Calling” and it went on to win the people’s choice award at the 2000 Banff Mountain Film Festival.
It showed with their world tour the next year and was shown at many film festivals in 2000, 2001 and 2002 as well as on Japanese television amongst other places.
It has shown all over the world including in Kathmandu as well as many venues throughout europe. It is on Vimeo now but only in standard def. Hoping to upload a high def version in the near future.
And here it is – all 45 minutes of it on Vimeo. Watch the movie (45 mins):
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