Man on fire: a chat with James Marsh

If there's anyone that's racking up frequent flyer points lately, it's director James Marsh. In the past two weeks he's traveled from Europe to Los Angeles for both the first screening of his latest film, Nineteen Eighty and for a little gathering called The Academy Awards. It was the latter trip and the reason behind it - the Oscar-winning documentary about daredevil Phillipe Petit's 1974 tightrope walk across the Twin Towers, Man on Wire - that's put Marsh in the spotlight recently. Realscreen tracked him down in Denmark, to talk about working with a mischievous daredevil, traversing between docs, features and commercial work, and what his next plunge into the abyss will be.

March 4, 2009

If there's anyone that's racking up frequent flyer points lately, it's director James Marsh. In the past two weeks he's traveled from Europe to Los Angeles for both the first screening of his latest film, Nineteen Eighty and for a little gathering called The Academy Awards. It was the latter trip and the reason behind it - the Oscar-winning documentary about daredevil Phillipe Petit's 1974 tightrope walk across the Twin Towers, Man on Wire - that's put Marsh in the spotlight recently. Realscreen tracked him down in Denmark, to talk about working with a mischievous daredevil, traversing between docs, features and commercial work, and what his next plunge into the abyss will be.

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About The Author

Barry Walsh is editor-in-chief and content director for Realscreen, and has served as editor of the publication since 2009. With a career in entertainment media that spans two decades, prior to Realscreen, he held the associate editor post for now defunct sister publication Boards, which focused on the advertising and commercial production industries. Before Boards, he served as editor of Canadian Music Network, a weekly music industry trade, and as music editor for HMV.com. As content director, he also oversees the development of content for the brand's market-leading events, the Realscreen Summit and Realscreen West, as well as new content initiatives.

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