User reviews

Everyone knows that documentaries tell the truth. Well, at least somebody's version of the truth. On the one hand there are participative documentaries like Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) starring its interventionist director Michael Moore, and on the other hand there are observational documentaries like Sherpa (2015) where the camera is the chief story-teller. Unlike movies, the doco aims for a higher social purpose and in Sherpa it is to show the world how the real glory of climbing Mount Everest belongs an exploited ethnic group in the mountains of Nepal. As historical gatekeepers for the Himalayas, their existence has depended on risking their lives so that Westerners and others can experience what it feels like "to conquer Everest".

Australian filmmaker Jennifer Peedom starts out asking why the traditionally friendly Sherpa guides turned aggressive towards tourists in the 2013 climbing season. The widely reported brawl was triggered by a single swear word directed at a Sherpa, igniting tensions that were simmering since Hillary was Knighted for his 1953 ascent while Sherpa Tenzing received lesser credit. In the middle of filming the brawl story, a massive avalanche claimed 16 Sherpa lives. Suddenly it is about the politics of an ethnic group demanding respect, no longer prepared to risk lives for meagre wages from an industry hosting thousands of tourists each year and charging summit climbers $75,000 – $100,000 for the privilege. The camera becomes a witness to tragedy, then grief that turns to anger and political activism. Audiences become judge in a case involving ethnic discrimination and the commercial exploitation of people who have been used as cheap mules. It's a complex dilemma with no easy solutions because the same commercial interests have done much to improve the lives of Sherpas.

The film shows political sensitivity in telling the story from the Sherpa viewpoint. Its great strengths lie in extraordinary cinematography and sound recording under the most chaotic high-altitude conditions a filmmaker can ever experience. The camera works skilfully across the visual pleasures of vast mountain-scapes to angry grief stricken Sherpa faces and frustrated tourist climbers, with a soundtrack of howling wind, crunching ice and hammering stakes that viscerally creates a 'being there' feel. Peedom lets the story tell itself without manipulative editing, and it is highly engaging while being informative about a world that few of us will enter. It is beautifully filmed and teaches much about Sherpa life and their struggle for recognition.

This film was intended to be a follow up to a situation that had occurred the year prior in Everest, when there was a near riot by the Sherpas directed at climbers, due, we're told, to an increasing feeling among the Sherpa community that their skills and incredibly dangerous work was taken for granted by the climbers, the commercial companies and their government. Poorly paid, poorly insured, regularly dying - and starting to resent this. Sherpas aren't just mountaineers, they're the local people of the area, their wives, their families, their communities, desperately poor and highly reliant on foreign money from the ever increasing number of mountaineers, from which the Nepalese government take a 30% royalty, amounting to $180 million yet provide the communities with so little . This Australian documentary wanted to see what was happening and why the Sherpas might be so angry and "rebelling" after this high altitude fracas. What happened next gave the viewer an answer the film makers will never have expected. Totally tragically 16 Sherpas were killed by an ice fall in the most dangerous part of the climb, the negotiation of the Khumu Ice fall, which the climbers do twice but the Sherpas perhaps twenty times in supplying the camps. The surviving Sherpas became, naturally, very distressed, and following some very emotional meetings, decided to call off the rest of the season, at great person financial cost to themselves and their communities, but preserving their pride and respect for themselves and those that had died. But Russell Bryce's reaction was so incredibly insensitive, patronising certainly, but much worse than patronising, truly lacking humanity and compassion. HIs major concern appeared to be his commercial operation, blaming all the problems on a few young troublemakers who didn't know any better than to misbehave. This was echoed by the other foreigners, the climbers and the commercial operators, one even going to describe the angry Sherpas as "terrorists". Any Westerner, and certainly any New Zealander (Russell is one), with any sense of humanity or humility watching this documentary, the breathtaking scenery, and the literally breathtaking work of the Sherpas, would come away feeling more than a little ashamed of the attitudes that so many of our fellow Western travellers displayed in this film. Yet Russell Bryce has operated his company for twenty years; over that time he must surely have developed some sort of humane rapport with the Sherpas he employs? But it make one wonder, indeed, was that "rapport" just that of master and servant, and has he still not awoken to the fact he has made his money out of a severe imbalance in power, race and culture, that I thought might have been a bit more diluted since the long past days of the Raj, but in which view I would seem to be seriously mistaken.

When one of the Western guy's talked about Sherpa's they "owned" was the moment when i knew slavery was not dead yet. Also, the Nepali governement taking a big cut.

Wow I am ashamed to be a New Zealander after watching this. All he cared about was the almighty dollar. Great documentary.

As for the guy who asked who "owned" these men. Could not believe my ears. Disgusting.

I loved this documentary as I like many people am fascinated by Chomolungma, being it's the highest Mountain on Earth.

The name 'Everest' should and the verb 'to summit' should be immediately be red flags. Nothing was discovered in the 1800s. Being named after some colonial white guy by the Royal Geographical Society instead of being called the Holy Mother in the local language. Hindi or Nepali Sagarmāthā, are much nicer names.

I really think though that when you use and abuse locals and make things easy for people to climb and insult this mountain this should honestly be reflected in any film made about it. The things missing from this film about exactly the work that Sherpas do, how they really feel, and the selfishness of the capitalist system that allows people to try and tick off the 'biggest and best' when ethically what those customers are doing is highly questionable. How much really do the Sherpas earn as percentage? Shouldn't there be excellent schools, hospitals and adequate insurance for Sherpas? Some of the problems with garbage and climate change are not properly covered at all.

Capitalistic money making from a Holy mountain should be properly regarded as a pretty hollow occupation, and someone risking their life to feed their family as pretty heroic, but this film seems sided with climbing company owners and clients by trying to be balanced between each side, when really one side is in the right and the other isn't.

At the end of the day a real climber would walk up from sea level, hire a local directly or not at all, go without oxygen especially if under 8000 meters and bring all their own supplies in and out.

Isn't that grand?

Russell Brice, the New Zealand owner of Himalayan Experience, is the sort of person one would cross the street simply to kick in the shins (or worse).

His attitude towards the Sherpa is, at best, patronizing. He calls them "boys", and insists their unhappiness has been provoked by outside agitators. (One is surprised he doesn't say "Communists".)

His attempts to communicate comprise utterly disingenuous remarks ("Please tell me if I've done anything to anger you"), and empty platitudes ("We've got to keep moving forward"). Nowhere does he suggest that the Sherpa's concerns are more important than the continued success of his business, complaining at one point that he can't recoup the cost of rope if the climb is canceled.

"Sherpa" is nothing if not an attack on the way the gross materialism of Western "culture" corrupts almost everything it touches. No longer do you have to struggle to put together your own expedition. The Sherpa "boys" will do //all// the work for you. Just fork over a lot of money. One is reminded of films in which African bearers lug the accoutrements of the Western wealthy, so they can have a comfortable journey.

An interesting documentary which shows (in brief) the role of the Sherpa and the dangers they face.

Sickening though is the 'Western' attitude displayed by those in this documentary toward the Sherpas.

6 out of 10. It's 'ok' but not great.

Mount Everest brings to mind many things. High altitudes, freezing temperatures and an increasing number of foreigners climbing the peak, at one point resulting in a traffic jam of epic proportions. It has become a business, with the Sherpa people always in the background; rarely expressing any emotion, helping out willingly as it is often the only way that these people can earn themselves a living – risking their lives time and time again to help complete strangers.

This film is told almost entirely from the perspective of the Sherpa. As we watch we see the insane risks that these people put themselves through, we also learn about the Sherpa as a native people. Deeply religious, they pray constantly that their journey will be successful and without death.

Their prayers are of course no guarantee, and in 2013 an almost inconceivable incident happened at 21,000 feet: a fight broke out between the Sherpa and the climbers they had been helping. They felt disrespected by a western climber who had referred to one of them as a mother f***er, which is pretty much the worst thing you could say to one of these people.

The small bits of footage captured from this incident show the usually calm and reserved Sherpa visibly angry. Tempers flared, rocks were thrown, as the Sherpa people finally let their voices be heard, knowing that foreign climbers see them almost as tools to help them achieve their goal, and don't respect them and their work as a result.

That fight was the inspiration behind this Australian-made documentary as the filmmakers decided that to find out what had caused this tension, they should follow the Sherpa, interviewing them and their families, who often have a good sense of humour about a very dangerous job that their loved one is involved in. Also interviewed and extensively on camera is Russell Brice, who is one of many crew-leaders ready to lead his team to the summit. While he continues to fight for safer conditions on the mountain to this day, during the film he comes off as a bit of an insensitive douche; disrespecting the Sherpa and spreading rumours about them, while remaining blissfully ignorant of their hard work. His lack of respect is alarming given how much the Sherpa contribute to every climb.

This latter sentiment is unfortunate, given the work these people do. One of their tasks is to transport all that is needed – for the foreign climbers – up the mountain to each base camp.

The most brutal part of the Sherpa's journey is that of the ice wall, literally a strip of ice that can move at any second. It must be traversed at night where there is a smaller chance of the ice shifting. Giant blocks of ice threaten their journey, yet the Sherpa continue without fear. Somehow this bravery is largely ignored by many foreign climbers who see the mountain as a tourist hot-spot; the more people climbing, the better for business. We even see flat-screen televisions at base camp. The rise of interest in the mountain is also raising the risk exponentially as the Sherpa are forced to climb the mountain several times a year, some up to thirty times.

This film is the anti-Everest. Looking even more stunning than that film, Sherpa charts the journey of the native Nepalese Phurba Tashin in the 2014 climbing season. What follows is a tragedy that leads to the Sherpa as a group making a list of demands, the meat of which involved compensation for unfortunate families left behind, as well as a rise in payment. For years the Sherpa have been silent, but here they become very vocal, accusing the government of taking their money; which is true in a sense, as they are paid pennies compared to what the business of climbing earns, parts of which go to the government. Their arguments were fair, but the reactions from some of the foreign climbers involved was disgusting to say the least, and shows just how little respect some of these foreign climbers have for the Sherpa despite the incredible work that they do, all of it so they can feed their family, and all of it to help the foreigners.

One American man actually referred to them as terrorists, simply because they were chanting for a rise in pay (in another language), while the circumstances meant that he couldn't climb the mountain when he felt like it. As the protests continue, he actually asks his team leader if they can call the 'owners' of the Sherpa to sort out the situation. The packed IMAX cinema all chuckled in unison at his senseless, egregiously ignorant remarks.

One of the best films to come out of Australia, if not our best documentary ever, SHERPA is an intoxicating, showing real peril and tragedy from the mountain itself. Using a combination of draw dropping visuals, head-cam footage from the Sherpa climbers themselves, brief interjections of archival footage and talking heads from both the Sherpa and the foreign climbers, this flick paints the definitive film of Mount Everest, or as the locals call it, Chomolungma.

www.epilepticmoondancer.net

Learned a lot from the ground floor of getting people up the mountain. Well worth the time. However it would have been nice to hear more from those responsible for managing the Sherpas.

The film's subtitles are very poor. Small and white in color they more than once disappear in the ice and snow like a foot print in a blizzard.

This documentary made me embarrassed to be a westerner.

This film manages to shine a bright light onto the heroic and humble Sherpas who come across as having a great deal more humanity and dignity than some of the climbers that rely upon them. It's simply unbelievable that in the 21st century someone can bleat on about what the Sherpas "owners" might think about their demands! That chap needs to climb into some elementary school or undertake some self awareness training for his next expedition. This contrasts with Phurba Tashi, a Sherpa with 21 ascents under his belt, a mountaineering giant who has retained amazing humility despite his achievements and who shows remarkable self control and dignity whilst being patronised in front of his Sherpa brethren. In many ways his final decision just demonstrates his excellent judgment and courage. There is no preaching here by the filmmaker - all the film does is let us see the realities. It's an important mountaineering film.

Hard to say - what was left on the editing floor but, it appeared to be from the Sherpa's perspective. One theme which rang through to me was the old 19th Century Master/Slave, Explorer/guide, Great White Warrior theme. And yes, during one of the down time cooling off talks one of the climbers did ask who "owned" the Sherpa who was making the trouble. I have never been over there but to me it seemed to be the Sherpa/Climber relationship has grown from the original 1953 Hillary climb where the climber's held the upper hand and the Sherpa's were subordinate - this film documents the reconsideration of that previous relationship. So it is a worthwhile documentary which I think all interested in climbing will enjoy. Now, personally for me, it's another crack in the wall of white supremacy, imperialism, whatever you want to call it. The hubris of these climbers who "brave Everest" when everything is prepared, lugged, cooked, constructed, behind the scenes by Sherpas is sickening. Their indignity at the Sherpas who dare have an opinion is amazing. Their insensitivity to local loss of life is embarrassing. Using the white supremacy term is serious so let me explain further. There is a movement in Congree to make the Buffalo our National Mammal. Ludicrous. We Europeans wiped out the Buffalo - some for sport some for tongues, and most tragically because we wanted to starve/force the Indians to the reservations so we could steal their land. One of the most noble civilizations ever along with the Buddhists and we wiped them out because we had our Manifest Destiny. What we are/were looking for could be found in the Indian way of life we destroyed. Ditto for chapter 2: the black man. We rape and slave them right out of Africa and act like it's their fault when they are "freed" and try to adapt to be 2nd class citizens. So we put a black on our money and make the Buffalo our national mammal - all fixed? Sorry for the rant but we treat the Sherpas with the same European contempt.

The first review I wrote went into too much detail about the underlying narrative of this movie.

Which I realise now is effectively a spoiler.

So, let me get to the point.

Watch this and get schooled in how the world really works and what some people really think beneath their veneer of respectability.

I won't say anymore but this is an engaging film that says so much about the worth of respect for oneself and your fellow human being.....all under the guise of a documentary about Sherpas (which is does an admirable job with).

It's a film dealing with much more than Sherpas but the global nature of privilege, greed, corruption, money and power.

Watch it.

Attending the Sydney Film Festival, I had been waiting all Festival for that piece of cinematic magic that just leaves you breathless and desperate to run out of the theatre so that you can share it with everyone you know. I found that with director Jennifer Peedom's impassioned documentary Sherpa.

Initially envisioned as an exploration of the deteriorating relationship between Sherpas and foreign climbers from the Sherpas perspective - particularly after the highly publicised 2013 Base Camp 1 brawl between European climbers and Sherpas - Sherpa quickly becomes a real-time chronicle of the worst loss of human life on Mt Everest in a single day.

Beginning with a series of majestic perspectives and time-lapse shots of the mother mountain, high-altitude cinematographers Renan Ozturk, Hugh Miller and Ken Saul – globally renown mountaineers in their own right – manage to capture the formidable, yet poetic beauty of Everest's peak as jet stream winds billow across it's dangerous edges. It's a wondrous sight, juxtaposed by crunching crampons and ice shifts that remind you of Everest's dangerously fragile environment.

So too does Peedom's thoughtful and oft times, entertaining introduction to Himalayan Experience's Sirdar Phurba Tashi Sherpa and his family. The current world record holder for the most total ascents of peaks above 8,000, and joint record holder for the most ascents (21) of Mt Everest, Phurba and his family are all too aware of Everest's rising exigency both on and off the peak. 'My brother died on Everest last year' Phurba's wife Karma Dopa Sherpa shares as she fights back tears on screen 'he went because he needed the money'.

Phurba understands his wife's concerns and knows culturally that it is wrong to climb the mountain they call Chomolungma but he also enjoys what he does. The income generated by the most dangerous job in the word not only financially benefits Sherpas families but it also benefits their entire community for the whole year. Humorously, Phurba's mother fails to agree with her son stating 'if he was a famous Monk, at least he would get blessings. But the fame he gets from the mountain is useless'.

Writer and journalist Ed Douglas shares this opinion as he presents throughout the film, a clear picture of the growing divide between the Sherpas cultural integrity and intrusive western commercialisation that one can't help but be appalled by. So too is the disproportionate contributions and risks Sherpas shoulder compared to their clients. Whilst wealthy westerners pay up to $75,000 to conquer their ultimate bucket list challenge, Sherpas earn a meager $5,000 to risk their lives up to 30 times per season for their clients, are rarely acknowledged or thanked publicly for their contribution to the climbers ascent, nor often respected for their cultural beliefs.

Early in the film, as Sherpas set up Everest base camp from scratch in anticipation of their western clients, Peedom gives audiences subtle glimpses of outrageous and shameful western excess and expectation: flat screen TV's, portable showers, bar areas, and an equipped library. There's a scene following the tent village preparations where two Sherpas are offering coffee to clients as they cheerily wish them good morning at their tent. After serving the first client who returns the Sherpas greetings and thanks them for the coffee, the following client responds by asking for sugar and no milk as if they are at their local Costa rather than over 5,000 m above sea level. It's truly a head shaking moment.

So too is the client meeting held between Himalayan veteran Russell Brice of Himalayan Experience and his commercial expedition group following the avalanche. As one of the last expedition groups to cancel their summit bids, not all of Brice's clients were happy. One American climber suggests Brice seek out 'the owner' of the unruly Sherpas and have them removed from the camp and later compares the cancellation of the season due to the Sherpas respect for their lost friends, their families and the mountain to a terrorist attack like 9/11 since America knows all about that. Boy did that incredulous statement make the audience laugh!

At certain points in the film, it's hard to find sympathy for the expedition operators and climbers bemoaning the loss of their ascent attempt and revenue as Sherpas mourn the 16 Sherpas who died but Peedom manages to find a respectful balance between the parties during and following the tragedy on screen. You can feel the raw emotions of expedition operators and their crews, medical staff, Sherpas and concerned climbers as they traverse from casualty and body recovery to confusion and frustration following the tragedy and finally, the Sherpas evaluation of their role on Everest and the increasing dangers on the mountain due to climate change.

Whilst Sherpa documents a horrific tragedy in real-time, it also acts as the dramatic backdrop for industrial dispute that's been simmering under the surface sky for a long time. Douglas concurs 'Tenzing gave the name Sherpa a currency that will never be exhausted and they are now finally beginning to take advantage of that'.

I couldn't agree more.

Sherpa is an extraordinary and soulful documentary, where there's death in beauty and beauty in death. As Tenzing Norgay says 'you don't conquer these mountains, you know; you just crawl up, as a child crawling onto your mothers lap'.

If people ever needed a reason to hate western capitalist culture they need look no further than this docu. I was ashamed and felt disgraced. I'd be even more ashamed if i were an American though. 16 Sherpas died on that mountain and some American dude likens the villagers to terrorsists, just because they cancel the climbing season and he doesn't get to get 'chauffeur driven' to the top.

This wasn't the only shocker either. Comments ranging from "who owns these Sherpas" to "these boys" (referring to the sherpas) make you realise that the privileged entitlement behaviour displayed by the passenger climbers is abhorrent.

Shocking story but well documented. The whole thing is a shameful reflection of imperialist greed and narcissism.

I went in expecting a 'spectacle documentary' but Sherpa turned out to be so much more.

As with so so many great documentaries, the film-makers went in expecting to make one type of film and came out with something much more than they could surely have hoped.

The spectacle of the cinematography should be enough to draw an audience; if that fails the human story is powerful - moments of heavy emotion and a heart-rending look in a wife's eyes still rattle about in my head.

Many other themes are strewn throughout also, giving the film a pleasing depth - politics, racial divides and differences, economic realities of mountain life and exploitation of nature amongst them.

One of the greatest triumphs for me is that we go on our own expedition with the subjects but also with the film-makers: As their plans become derailed and their film goes in a direction they could not have expected we join them - We find ourselves embroiled in real- life drama and tragedy in perhaps the most dramatic of all locations on Earth.

Watching white men worry only about their money. One even says that the sherpas are "owned". The main white privileged idiot, Russell Brice, even calls upset men "militia ". SMFH.

FYI Russell, Oppressed people working for extremely rich people never "usually express their emotions freely".

This doco made me angry. But it's a definite must watch.

Where eastern culture meets western culture there is sure to be a story. But this is a story about the haves and the have nots. Greed and shameless duplicity. The entitlement complex, so prevalent in the higher eschlons of western and eastern cultures is on full display in all its raw ugliness. Watch the time lapse-like decay of the spirit of climbing Everest in cooperation to the subjugation and vilification of human beings pushed to their limits in the highest place on earth.