Four decades on from the famine crisis that prompted Sir Bob Geldof to galvanise and motivate the pop elite to take the stage at the old Wembley and Philadelphia’s JFK Stadium for Live Aid on July 13th 1985, Ethiopia becomes once again the bacldrop for an extraordinary tale of triumph-over-adversity – in Simon Ratigan‘s insightful documentary ALEX LEWIS: MOUNTAIIN.
Back in 2013, Alex Lewis was a healthy male with a loving partner in Lucy and young son, Sam. Then tragedy struck with a condition that was soon to render him a quadruple amputee which in the mindset of somebody more complacent would have killed them off never to be thought of again.
However, Lewis somehow decided that it would be best to try and find a common ground for the greater good for like-physical disabled folk like himself.
And so it came to pass….with help from university students in Southampton amongst others he looked to try and design a machine that could be mobile enough to work in places where disabled people felt challenged. The result – an odyssey to climb Ethiopia’s highest peak (‘higher than Dartmoor’, Lewis is heard at one point in the documentary).
The effect is a fascinating journey which prompts Lucy to question whether if Alex had not been what he is today whether they would still be together (she states that his main interests when he was able-bodied were golf and booze). Upon arrival in Ethiopia, he meets Emebet, affected in a like-minded physical challenge who is keen also to climb the high peak like him.
However, ALEX LEWIS: MOUNTAIN is not just a tale of how one man could overcome his own physical limitations, it is also a tale of how diversity and disability can triumph over all manner of challenges thrown your way when curveballs hit you from the centre plate of life. There are also, as in the terrific FREE SOLO, some breathtaking vistas that would challenge even the most able-bodied vertigo suffering viewers, let alone the amazing dynamic duo of Lewis and Emebet.
So, the next time you couch potatoes are having trouble getting off the couch and doing twenty paces, marvel at the amazing steps that Alex Lewis has taken in his life after the near-tragic life-changing experience that sets up his extraordinary change of path and look deeper into how you could change your own destiny in the time you have in the world.
The London Independent Film Festival runs from 14th – 23rd April 2023.
For tickets and information, please go to:
https://genesiscinema.co.uk/GenesisCinema.dll/WhatsOn?pg=4&sp=4
