Coming to theatres today, Friday, April 1: THE FLIGHT FANTASTIC
Tom Moore’s tribute to the art of the flying trapeze made its bow at Australia’s Byron Bay fest last year. The doc also screened at the Sarasota and Louisiana fests and the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Dance on Camera series.
Moore’s focus is on the Flying Gaonas, a family act that headlined Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus in the 1960s and ’70s, and the Big Apple Circus in the ’80s, but who count relatives in the Mexican circus dating back to 1891. The film generally sticks to the careers of four children of Victor Gaona Murillo however: Tito, Armando, Chela, and Richie. Much is made of Tito’s attempts to successfully complete a quadruple somersault during a performance, but the doc otherwise follows a meandering, anecdotal path – additionally hampered by an excessive, distracting score – as it recounts the act’s storied heights and gradual fall from popularity, leading the family to run trapeze schools in the present day for sick children and for curious adults, and making this primarily of interest to circus history fans more than a general audience.
what (not) to doc 