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Episode 4

FALLING FROM THE SKY: ACCIDENT AS TESTIMONIAL DOCUMENTARY

Martin Duckworth and Pat Crawley’s Accident (1973) had been conceived as a straightforward project that involved filming a stunt within a small aircraft, but the film was transformed by a tragic turn—the plane crashed, claiming the life of the pilot and leaving Crawley, who had been on board filming, with life-altering injuries. Duckworth, filming from the ground, captured the crash and, during Crawley’s long recovery, collaborated with him to reframe the project around that moment. In this video essay, Stephen Broomer addresses Accident as a film on the challenges of resilience.

Creators

  • Stephen Broomer is a Canadian filmmaker, writer, and film preservationist. He is the founder of the Black Zero Film Collection, restoring and publishing Canadian experimental cinema. His films have screened at Anthology Film Archives, the TIFF Bell Lightbox, Lincoln Center and the Canadian Film Institute. He teaches in the Cinema Studies Institute at the University of Toronto.