Meru

Meru (2015) is a documentary you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, following three elite climbers — Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, and Renan Ozturk — on their pursuit of the Shark's Fin, a 6,000-meter rock face in the Himalayas that had defeated every serious team that attempted it.

Their first try in 2008 ended 100 meters short of the summit. The return attempt, three years later, came after Ozturk fractured his skull in an avalanche and Chin broke vertebrae in a ski accident — injuries that should have ended both careers. The film covers both expeditions, with footage Chin shot on the wall itself.

Chin being the cameraman as well as one of the climbers gives the film an intimacy that separates it from most mountain documentaries. The audience prize at Sundance 2015 confirmed what the footage shows: this is less about altitude records and more about what drives people past the point where stopping makes sense. Watch Meru online on iFILM.