Shaun White tells us a little lie near the beginning of Don’t Look Down. The world’s best snowboarder, who has just won his 2006 Olympic Gold in Turin, says that he doesn’t care about finishing first, that he’s had a great year already, and winning just isn’t that important. But he does care, and this intimate portrait of Shaun by Willie Ebersol (previously at Mountainfilm with Itutheng) shows how hard it is to stay at the top when there is room for only one at the summit. The film follows Shaun in the year after the Olympics, essentially asking, “What now? What do you do after you have won Olympic gold? How do you top that?” And the answer: You take on a new challenge, such as skateboarding, and see what happens.
—David Holbrooke