Interview with Josh Berman

Faced with a traumatic injury that renders you permanently disabled; how would you reinvent yourself? In 2014, Trevor Kennison’s life was forever altered by a broken back – for worse and for better, in equal measures. Barry Corbet, an intrepid skier, mountaineer, explorer, filmmaker, and Jackson Hole legend, broke his back in a helicopter crash in 1968.  Frustrated by a pre-ADA culture that did not accept or support the disabled, Barry reinvented himself, becoming a seminal leader in the disability community. Full Circle follows Trevor on a path towards post-traumatic growth in parallel with Barry, 50 years later.  Their stories mirror each other, connected through time and space by common locations and motifs; injuries in the Colorado backcountry, rehab at Craig Hospital, fame in Jackson Hole; but also, through their shared resiliency and refusal to let their passion for life be limited by their injuries. Full Circle is an unblinking examination of the challenges of Spinal Cord Injury, and a celebration of the growth that such tragedy can catalyze.

Bringing the ethos of the film into practice Primetime Emmy-nominated composer Mark Crawford (“The Social Dilemma”) chose to work with musicians living with disabilities for the live instrumentation of the score. Mark assembled an all-star team, including Grammy-winning guitarist Eric Howk of Portugal. The Man, world-renowned jazz pianist Justin Kauflin, percussionist Jason Barnes, trumpet player Patrick Henry Hughes, virtuoso violinist Brian Krinke, and members of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, with orchestrator Jeff Kryka preparing the score. Additionally, Eric Howk wrote and recorded a custom song for the credits of the film, titled “What I Am.”  Very much autobiographical, the song brings Eric’s voice into the film in more ways than one, speaking directly to his life experience as a paraplegic confined to a wheelchair.

JOSH BERMAN