User:Johnstarr1/sandbox

Stealing Altitude is a 10 minute student documentary produced in 1990 at the University of Southern California by student filmmakers John Starr and Roger Teich. Shot on 16mm black and white film, the documentary is one of the earliest serious treatments of the extreme sport of outlaw BASE jumping.

BASE jumping is the sport of parachuting from fixed objects such as skyscrapers (BASE is an acronym that stands for Building, Antennae, Spans (bridges) and Earth structures (cliffs) -- the four types of objects jumped.)

Stealing Altitude explores the psychology of one jumper and documents his activity in the dawn and pre-dawn world of downtown Los Angeles.

Over the years, the film has screened at numerous film festivals including Sundance, the Houston International Film Festival and the American Film Institute Los Angeles Film Festival. It toured with the first annual Festival of Short Films, and has also received several awards including Best Student Documentary at the Atlanta Film Festival, and the IDA/David L. Wolper documentary Merit award.

The film's title is derived from the old BASE jumper's expression "borrowing altitude", a term used to describe the act of sneaking, sometimes trespassing, onto private property in order to get access to "free" altitude -- something normally paid for at legitimate skydive centers.

Shortly after the film's release, many BASE jumpers adopted the variant expression stealing altitude coined by the filmmakers Starr and Teich.