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Vasarhelyi and Chin split the difference between the highs and lows of their filmography with their latest documentary, “Wild Life.” In this National Geographic production, the filmmakers tenderly cover conservationists Kris and Doug Tompkins’s decades-long love story, Doug’s death in 2015, and Kris’s quest to fulfill her late husband’s dream of preserving the South American wilderness. If you keep an eye on environmental news, you’ll know how this ends: In 2018, Kris gave away a million acres to the Chilean government, marking the largest private land donation in history and facilitating the creation or expansion of eight national parks across the country.
“Wild Life” lacks the pulse-pounding suspense of “Free Solo” and “The Rescue,” but its depiction of selfless philanthropy is galvanizing all the same. As two Americans who made their fortunes in outdoor attire — Doug founded the North Face; Kris is a former CEO of Patagonia — the Tompkinses faced plenty of pushback when they settled in rural Chile in the 1990s and amassed vast swaths of land. Unpacking the scale of the accomplishment, Vasarhelyi and Chin examine the anti-American skepticism, far-right conspiracy theories and economic counterarguments that hindered the couple’s ecological ambitions.
As with “Return to Space,” Vasarhelyi and Chin could have cast more scrutiny on their subjects. Doug’s younger days, as an apparent womanizer living a life of excess, are barely dwelt on. The same goes for Kris’s admission that she broke off her engagement to another man after becoming romantically involved with Doug. The film also could have grappled more with the notion of privilege, and the optics of a wealthy White couple throwing their financial weight around Latin America.
But it’s also hard to see the aspirations of the film’s subjects as anything other than altruistic. That much becomes evident with the help of talking heads such as former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet; Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, whose own rags-to-riches tale and philanthropic efforts get their due; and Chin himself, an accomplished mountaineer, as shown in “Meru,” the first film he co-directed with Vasarhelyi.
“On any scorecard, nature is losing,” Kris says during one of her interviews, filmed both at her home and during a 2018 expedition to a Chilean peak her spouse once summited. “Wild Life” also deploys extensive archival footage of Doug, including remarkable images from a 1968 trip to the Patagonia region that sparked his passion for South American landscapes. In the film’s most wrenching moment, Doug reflects on his mortality and the realization that he may not live long enough to see his life’s work completed.
When it comes time to address his death at age 72, from hypothermia during a kayaking accident in southern Chile, Vasarhelyi and Chin gracefully re-create the harrowing incident through impressionistic animation. It’s not the only artistic flourish in a film that uses stark graphics to depict the accelerating rate of global deforestation and sets sweeping vistas of the Chilean mountains to a soaring score from composers Gustavo Santaolalla and Juan Luqui, whose work can be heard in “The Last of Us.”
Although Kris doesn’t seem as comfortable in the limelight as Honnold in “Free Solo,” the divers in “The Rescue” or Musk in “Return to Earth,” you can expect to be shattered by her grief following her husband’s death — and uplifted by her strength as she carries on his legacy. In fact, “Wild Life” is at its best when it focuses on Kris’s path toward renewed purpose after an unspeakable loss. By committing that journey to film, Vasarhelyi and Chin show off an invaluable skill: knowing when a story is worthy of preservation.
PG-13. At the Angelika Pop-Up. Contains brief strong language. 93 minutes.
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