Man on Wire, a documentary that tells the story of Frenchman Philippe Petit and his walk on a wire between the twin towers of the World Trade Center, opens today in select cities and is garnering lot’s of praise. For years people have focused on why Petit did what he did, whereas director James Marsh asks how - a question that seems to make the film all the more interesting

It’s always interesting to me how we place so much value on the question of why and likewise what does it mean. For me, that questions like that always come up when 1) I’ve made a film and showed it to folks or 2) when people see my tattoo. With films, people ask why/what does it mean when they don’t get it or have nothing else to say. When it comes to my tattoos, I’m fairly certain the asking of these questions is simply masking most folks desire to say “why the hell did you put that on your arm?”

Man on Wire is a refreshing change and I can’t help but appreciate Petit’s point of view:

“I did something magnificent and mysterious, and I got a ‘why?’” Petit says, “and the beauty of it is that I don’t have a ‘why.’” [NPR]

David Edelsein has a good review of the film over at NPR and the trailer is below. And if you find yourself with some time today, takepart and read more about Petit and how we can all do mysterious wonderful things for just the beauty of it.

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