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Picture a pro rock climber. What do you see? Maybe it’s Free Solo star Alex Honnold. Maybe it’s someone less specific like a man in his 20s with massive forearms. Regardless, it’s probably not a 13-year-old girl.
Enter Ashima Shiraishi. She’s a kid growing up in New York City who turned the climbing world upside down by breaking record after record at a young age. She started climbing at 6 years old when her parents, Tsuya and Hisatoshi (Poppo) Shiraishi, took her to Central Park where she started climbing at Rat Rock. It’s only escalated from there.
Her father Poppo is her coach and number-one fan. While he doesn’t have formal climbing experience, he is a retired pro Butoh dancer and avant-garde performer with experience training like a professional athlete.
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The documentary follows the pair on a trip to South Africa where Ashima is on a mission to become the youngest person to climb a V14 boulder – an accomplishment that few female climbers have ever achieved. Most climbers will take a year or so to work out a climb of this difficulty, but Ashima is on summer break from school so she only has a couple of weeks.
This film really captures what it’s like to face a challenge that is at your limit. Ashima explains in the film, that when you’re climbing something this difficult there’s no room for error describing how she times out her attempts around the breezes that pass through the mountains. When Poppo suggests she should switch her grip, she reminds him that it’s a V14 and that’s not an option.
And imagine being a professional athlete as a teenager and your coach is your dad. Sure there are eye rolls, but what you mostly see from Ashima is a loving gratitude. This film handles what is naturally a delicate relationship with the upmost respect. Poppo is a tough coach with high standards for his daughter, who is more thoughtful and disciplined. His climbing advice ranges from regulating cold temperatures to teaching her to yell into the Cederberg Mountains.
You also hear from Ashima’s mom, Tsuya. In one of the emotion-packed scenes, Ashima talks about the selfless sacrifices her parents make to support her climbing career while Tsuya sews a new pair of capris for her daughter to climb in. This sports documentary has a lot of heart.
The pacing, cinematography and sound design in this movie are all top notch. At times, it feels like the mountains are a character with the weather changing at pivotal scenes throughout the journey. One of the editors for the film, Samuel J. Rong, was at the Milwaukee Film Festival’s first screening and he received a well-deserved round of applause.
SEE FOR YOURSELF: You can catch the Milwaukee Film Festival’s last showing of Ashima at the Times Cinema on Wednesday, April 24 at 6:30 p.m.
