I saw "Man on Wire" a few nights ago. A few minutes into the documentary/film, my partner and I had a brief discussion/argument over the source of the footage being shown in some parts. It was obvious that some of it was staged. For instance, there is no way that the team of compelling characters who were to rig a wire between the two World Trade Centres in 1974 had filmed their entrance into the towers disguised as a work crew and a pair of architects. There was no disagreement there. But, whilst she thought the "old" footage of the lead character and wire-walker, Phillipe, and his posse carousing around in fields dotted with flowers or of Phillipe manically juggling in the streets of Paris whilst riding a unicycle must have been re-enactments, I was sure that they were authentic. I can understand her difficulty in accepting that these snippets were the real deal, they were so suffused with atmosphere and the force of their characters as to be almost magical, and therefore surely created through technological wizardry and careful direction. I was right of course, they were real, and they kept coming, like an avalanche of information on the beauty, purity of purpose, and artistic expression which exists in potential within humanity. Sound over the top? I promise you, it's not. I can still scarcely believe that these people exist, really exist, and that they did what they did, really did it. It rejuvenated my sense of what is possible, and of what could and should drive me. Watch it.