Jimmy Chin (‘Wild Life’) explains why Kris Tompkins was hesitant to tell her and her husband’s story [Exclusive Video Interview]
Getting Kris Tompkins to participate in the documentary, “Wild Life,” was not an easy task for co-director Jimmy Chin. “She is of the generation where they’re not looking to be famous. They were always about getting the work done and I don’t think, initially, she felt like there was any need to publicize her life or what she had done,” he tells Gold Derby during our recent Meet the Experts panel on TV Documentaries (watch the exclusive video interview above).
Through reassuring Tompkins about how much he commits himself to a project, she was eventually able to come around. “I think Kris took some time to think about it and I think she understood that we had this platform and that this story was one of the hopeful stories about the environment and about how to create change in this world in a meaningful way.”
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“Wild Life,” which can currently be streamed on Disney+, was co-directed by Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi. It chronicles the relationship between Kris Tompkins, the first CEO of Patagonia, and Doug Tompkins, the founder of The North Face. At the same time that they built these successful businesses, the two were also massive conservationists. They created national parks in Chile and Argentina as well as making the largest private land donation in order to preserve one of the last wild spaces on the planet. Chin and Vasarhelyi are both past Oscar winners, having won the Best Documentary prize in 2018 for “Free Solo.”
Their story was one they had been wanting to tell for quite a while. “They were pioneers in the climbing and adventure world. They had done very significant climbs all around the planet, but then, of course, they became pioneers in business as entrepreneurs.” This attitude also came from Chin knowing the Tompkins’s from a very early point in his career. “It was an embarrassment of riches in terms of the different stories that they had as a group of friends and how much impact they had on the world. Kris and Doug’s story and what they did in Chile, I thought was one of the great stories of our time that was untold.”
One of the best things about putting the film together for Chin was having two-time Oscar winner Gustavo Santaolalla compose the music for the project. “He was certainly our first choice. Coming from South America and also I think his work most closely matched for us musically to the experience of these landscapes. It just felt like a natural connection and, of course, it was extraordinary to work with him.” He was extremely happy with the score and views Santaolalla’s participation as a kind of encapsulation of the magic that films like these can possess. “That’s the thing about these kinds of films, right? You bring together these incredibly talented people and see what happens and it’s only through that, that you’re able to make these films.”
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