On the morning of August 7, 1974, Philippe Petit fulfilled a dream and an obsession. Balancing on a wire suspended between the rooftops of New York's World Trade Center towers, the French tightrope walker spent 45 minutes in a meditative trance, far above the gasping crowds and just beyond the hands of frustrated police officers. Petit was untouchable. After the six and a half years it took him to earn the trust of friends and strangers to get atop the colossal towers, a man just shy of 25 created history.
James Marsh's Man On Wire celebrates the peculiar journey of Philippe Petit and his band of unusual cohorts. The film combines interviews, re-enactments and original footage in a testimony to their journey and what is hailed as "the artistic crime of the century."
Feb. 19, 7:30 p.m., $5/students, $8/general, Mass MoCA, 87 Marshall St., North Adams, (413) 662-2111, www.massmoca.org.
