At the age of 22, Kevin Pearce was one of the world’s top halfpipe snowboarders and months out from competing at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. He was living the dream. That dream came to a crushing end when Kevin clipped the edge of his board while practicing a cab double cork at Salt Lake City in late 2009. On the way down he struck his head, sustaining career-ending traumatic brain damage.

Thanks to excellent hospital care and never-ending support from his family, Kevin has made a remarkable recovery, all of which has been captured in Oscar nominated director Lucy Walker’s documentary The Crash Reel. Pearce met Lucy at a Nike Camp called A Better World - his first trip after the accident. Kevin shared photos and emails his aunt had written after the accident keeping family and friends up with Kevin’s recovery. While Walker knew nothing about snowboarding, she saw the potential for a documentary. Interestingly, it was Kevin’s family rather than Kevin himself, who first realised how beneficial and important this documentary, could be to others. 

Philip Seymour Hoffman is no longer with us, but his life and Oscar winning career live on in his many wonderful performances. He was known for films such as Scent of a Woman (his first major film role),Boogie Nights, The Big Lebowski, Charlie Wilson’s War, Capote and more recently The Master and Doubt. Hoffman had four Oscar nominations to his name, including a win for Capote and not only was he a success on the big screen, but on the stage too winning three Tony Award nominations for True West,Long Day's Journey into Night and Death of a Salesman. This week Rialto Channel is screening the 2012 drama Performance (know as A Late Quartet in the US) in which Hoffman once again proves his class and versatility by playing a world-class violinist.

Recently I caught up with Stacy Peralta (Riding Giants and Dogtown and Z-Boys), one of my favourite extreme sports documentary filmmakers, about his documentary Bones Brigade: An Autobiography. A pro-skater in the 70s, Peralta created his own team of very young skaters in the early 80s called the Bones Brigade who went onto become household names – and still are today. Interestingly, Peralta didn’t want to make this documentary, but Tony Hawk and other original members of the Bones Brigade felt it was time to share their remarkable story. Read my blog onThursday 20^th, as Peralta shares his thoughts with me on the making of this personal film. 

Here are my picks for the week. 

Screening this Saturday on Rialto Channel is Norway’s most expensive film, the incredible ocean adventure Kon–Tiki. It tells the true story of Thor Heyerdahl’s epic 1947 journey across the Pacific from Peru to Polynesia in an attempt to prove it was possible for South Americans to settle in Polynesia more than 5000 years earlier.

Among the crime series (Braquo, Wallendar and Love/Hate), excellent extreme sports documentaries and eclectic mix of Canadian dramas this month, don’t forget Rialto Channel is also celebrating the work of acclaimed American director Jim Jarmusch. Jarmusch has spent his career meshing together European and Hollywood cinematic sensibilities across a variety of genres. He’s known for his static camera shots and panoramic American landscapes, working with musicians, and happily avoiding large studios. His latest film, the exceptionally cool and funny vampire flick Only Lovers Left Alive will screen in May during Rialto Channel’s Cannes Month, but in the meantime don’t miss the opportunity to catch his earlier films Mystery Train(Sunday 9^th March) followed by Night on Earth, Dead Man and the classic Coffee and Cigarettes.

For years, Hollywood has turned to the world of sport for inspiration, producing films about sports people, teams and coaches who have defied the odds and overcome challenges to rise to the top - or who have at least given it a damn good shot.

Sport provides great drama, it produces stories filled with passion and desire, triumph and despair. Films such as Raging Bull, Chariots of Fire, Rocky,Remember the Titians, The Wrestler, Field of Dreams and Moneyball aren’t just ‘great sports’ films, they’re great films that can be enjoyed by anyone who loves watching humanity at it’s best, and worst.

But sport also provides great reality, and this month Rialto Documentary is screening a handful of sports documentaries that will have you laughing one minute, and crying the next.

When it comes to the winners of the 86^th Academy Awards that took place on Sunday 2^nd March at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, there are few surprises.

A panda bear could have predicted this year’s winners they were so obvious, so I’m not going to make a big deal about the fact I correctly picked the outcome of the eight main awards in a blog last week. As I tell my kids, no one likes a showoff. 

I love an occasion, a good show and celebrating film, so I’ll be glued to the television from 2.30pm this Monday (3^rd March) for the 86^th Academy Awards. Months of speculation will finally come to an end as we see ifGravity or 12 Years a Slave will triumph as Best Film and if the cast of American Hustle have conned their way to Oscar glory in the acting categories.  

It’s only February, but while many of us feel like we’re just starting the year the film industry has been busy. It’s amazing to think the Sundance Film Festival and the Berlin Film Festival have already been and gone.

You might have registered the Berlin Film Festival was taking place thanks to the bizarre behavior of actor Shia LaBeouf. LaBeouf turned up at the gala premiere for his latest film, Lars von Trier'sNymphomaniac I, with a paper bag on his head that read, “I am not famous anymore.” The reason for this attention seeking behavior steams back to December when it was discovered the short film he wrote and directed, HowardCantour.com, had monologues and scenes directly lifted from a graphic novel by Daniel Clowes. As the plagiarism accusations built, LaBeouf began a series of apologies including sky sign writing and in January announcing he was retiring from public life.