On November 19, Academy Award-winning filmmaker and Princeton alumna Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi ’00 screened her latest film, Nyad, for a full house at the Princeton Garden Theatre. Following the film, Vasarhelyi joined in conversation with Lecturer in Visual Arts BJ Perlmutt and answered questions from the audience about her new biopic that recounts a riveting chapter in the life of world-class athlete Diana Nyad.
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi ’00 talks with BJ Perlmutt following the screening of her latest film, NYAD, at the Princeton Garden Theatre on Nov. 19, 2023. Photo by Julia Mahony
Three decades after giving up marathon swimming in exchange for a prominent career as a sports journalist, at the age of 60, Diana Nyad (portrayed by four-time Academy Award nominee Annette Bening) becomes obsessed with completing an epic swim that always eluded her: the 110 mile trek from Cuba to Florida, often referred to as the “Mount Everest” of swims. Determined to become the first person to finish the swim without a shark cage, Diana goes on a thrilling, four-year journey with her best friend and coach Bonnie Stoll (two-time Academy Award winner Jodie Foster) and a dedicated sailing team. Adapted from Diana’s memoir Find a Way, the film tells a remarkable true story of tenacity, friendship and the triumph of the human spirit.
On November 20, Vasarhelyi visited the Program in Visual Arts and met with undergraduate students in Perlmutt’s “Documentary Filmmaking I” course to discuss her approach to crafting and directing films. Nyad is Vasarhelyi’s first narrative feature, but she is perhaps best known for co-producing Free Solo, the BAFTA and Academy Award-winning documentary portrait of rock climber Alex Honnold in 2019.
Director of the films Free Solo, Nyad, and more, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi ’00, visits BJ Perlmutt’s “Documentary Filmmaking” class Nov. 20, 2023. Photo by Allison Ha
Together with Jimmy Chin, Vasarhelyi has directed and produced other documentaries including The Rescue (2021), which portrays the daunting June 2018 underwater rescue of 12 young soccer players and their coach trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand; and Wild Life (2023), the story of conservationists Kris Tompkins and Douglas Tompkins who pioneered the outdoor brands Patagonia & The North Face yet left corporate success to create National Parks throughout Chile and Argentina.
Perlmutt’s course introduces students to the art, craft and theory behind generating compelling films. Students screen and discuss a variety of non-fiction films in order to analyze documentary filmmaking both as an aesthetic practice and as a means of social discourse, ultimately helping each student identify the formal, social and political concerns that might drive their own filmmaking.
Vasarhelyi last visited campus in April 2019 for a screening and discussion of Free Solo in the James Stewart Film Theater at 185 Nassau Street.
