"Skywalkers" with Jeff Zimbalist

Top Docs: Award-Winning Documentary Filmmakers

Probably the last place you want to have a lover’s quarrel is during an illegal climb up one of the world’s tallest buildings — especially when your goal is to perform a death-defying acrobatic duet on the tiny platform at the top of the building’s spire. But in Jeff Zimbalist’s (“The Two Escobars,” “ReMastered”) harrowing, breathtaking documentary “Skywalkers: A Love Story,” that’s exactly where things are headed after Vanya Beerkus and Angela Nikolau, two uniquely gifted “rooftoppers/skywalkers,” reach the upper floors of the world’s second tallest building and can’t seem to agree on what to do next.

Joining Ken on the pod, Jeff describes how these two remarkable “artists of the sky” combine forces to perform some of the most extraordinary feats you’ve ever seen, from heights that will make your head spin. But while the footage of these achievements may make your palms sweaty (as they did mine), it is the growing intimate relationship between Vanya and Angela that proves every bit as complicated as the plotting required to pull off one of their amazing stunts. With his sharpened focus on this fascinating true romance, Jeff pulls off a pretty impressive stunt of his own: how to tell a story that is thoroughly relatable to those of us who will never do more than climb a 10-foot ladder or take an elevator ride to the top of some really tall building. It turns out that love may be the scariest climb of all.

“Skywalkers: A Love Story” is streaming on Netflix.

Follow:

@jeffzimbalist on Instagram

@topdocspod on Instagram and X

Hidden Gem:

“The Hour of the Furnaces”