Scaling mountain, challenges in documentary

"Meru is the story of that journey - one of friendship, sacrifice, hope and obsession," the documentary's website says.

Chin has spent much of his life in the mountains as both a climber and a professional photographer. He said he always wanted to make a film that gave an audience the visceral experience of going on a difficult alpine

climb.

"I hoped to give people a glimpse of the stakes, the risks and sacrifices involved," he said.

"In these kinds of stories, people often get caught up in the accomplishment, but there's another side, of course," said Vasarhelyi, who met Chin during filming. "Being married to Jimmy, I'm interested in what the female characters in the story - the ones back home, often wringing their hands - had to say.

"How did they tolerate the risks these climbers, their closest family members, take as part of their professional careers? What drove their lives, and what kept them steady," Vasarhelyi asked.

The couple will participate in a Q&A at the Angelika on Friday.

"It's a thoughtful meditation on life, death and everything in between, which is likely part of the reason it snagged the Sundance Documentaries Audience Award," wrote Newsweek.

It was also a nominee for the Best Documentary at the 18th Shanghai International Film Festival in June.

"Meru [is] … the most shocking, exciting film of this year's festival. My palms were sweating while watching it," commented Brucas from Shanghai on the Doban film website, a Chinese film-rating platform.

The score for Meru by the Shanghai audience is 9.4 out of 10 on Doban.

Hong Xiao in New York contributed to this story.