David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived

David Holmes was a gymnast at sixteen. He was hired as a stunt performer on the first Harry Potter film and doubled Daniel Radcliffe for ten years; he flew, fell, was rigged to a broomstick and did all the dangerous work of the series. In 2009 a wire gag went wrong during a rehearsal and he hit a wall. His neck was broken. Since that day he has been paralysed from the neck down. The documentary tells this: archive footage from the sets, the accident, the hospital years and what came after. Radcliffe is still his friend and the two talk across from each other. Dan Hartley directs. Daniel Radcliffe is among the producers. The film uses the sets' own behind the scenes recordings; Holmes and the stunt team had been filming themselves for years. The matter it treats is the invisibility of dangerous work in cinema; the face on screen is one thing, the body taking the risk another. It does not turn the accident into a story of fate; what followed is shown in detail and without ornament. After the accident Holmes made a podcast recording the stories of stunt performers, and that is inside the documentary too. Its strongest side is the strand of friendship; Radcliffe's position is not only that of a star. Its limit is scope; the industry's safety order and the question of responsibility are not opened enough. Who it is for: viewers who like documentaries about the making of films and know the Harry Potter series. Who it is not for: the accident footage and its aftermath are hard, and the register at times very emotional.