Skydiving cameraman teams up with Tri-Cities sports star for ‘Space Cowboy’
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kennewick High grad’s feature documentary to be shown on the big screen in Tri-Cities
- Film profiles Joe Jennings, pioneer of free-fall cinematography, and his emotional journey
- The hometown basketball star, turned filmmaker will be at the screenings
The Tri-Cities knows Bryce Leavitt best as a standout Kennewick High basketball player who went on to play college ball and then play professionally overseas.
But his career goals have taken a new direction, and the Tri-Cities can see that when his feature-length documentary “Space Cowboy” shows at Fairchild Cinemas in Kennewick starting Friday, March 13.
“It takes a long time to make things go right. But it takes no time at all for things to go wrong,” says the opening of the trailer for “Space Cowboy” as three skydivers bail from a car hurtling from the sky toward the Earth.
The space cowboy of the film’s title is Joe Jennings, a pioneer of skydiving cinematography, who became known for dropping objects — from couches to cars — out of planes and making them “fly” smoothly through the air in front of his video camera.
Leavitt has long been interested in writing, but basketball had taken priority until a some introspective years during the COVID pandemic.
After graduating from Kennewick High in 2012, Leavitt played basketball at Washington State University and Seattle Pacific University. He had been playing professionally in Germany, when the pandemic shut down basketball.
Leavitt returned to the Tri-Cities to wait out the pandemic, making some money by private coaching of young basketball players, and starting to develop his documentary film.
“And then I was basically ... so inspired by and so kind of obsessed with this, this project, that I decided to retire,” Leavitt said. “I decided to not go back to Germany to play.”
Instead, he moved to Los Angeles to concentrate on the documentary.
He had met Jennings a couple of years earlier when he had returned to the Tri-Cities from Germany to recuperate from a broken ankle. He was already interested in filmmaking then and was making a short film for fun.
It had a random skydiving element to it. When he searched online for people who filmed skydiving, he came across Jennings.
At first Leavitt was interested in a craft he had no idea existed — free fall cinematography, as Jennings calls it.
But as he got to know Jennings, he realized “that as cool as the skydiving was, that his emotional journey was even more compelling,” Leavitt said. “That’s when I just knew it was a story I needed to tell.”
Indiewire named “Space Cowboy” a Critic’s Pick.
“Kind, caring and plummeting to Earth like the rest of us, Joe Jennings is the hero that will remind you to save yourself,” wrote Alison Foreman for Indiewire.
Jennings may be fearless in the air, but on the ground he has struggled.
Now, six years after Leavitt began working on the film, it’s in theaters, where its gorgeous action cinematography is best seen on a theater screen.
Leavitt’s ready to think about new projects now. He continues to be interested in directing documentaries but also in writing and producing fictional films.
He plans to be at the Fairchild Cinemas — Southgate, 2823 S. Quillan St., Kennewick, for showings at 6:30 p.m. Friday; 6:30 p.m. Saturday; 2, 4:15 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday; and 6:30 p.m. Monday.
Some screening also will be used to promote and raise money for Safe Harbor, which offers services for at-risk youth and families in the Tri-Cities.
Tickets are available at spacecowboymovie.com. Cost, including purchase fee, is $15.40 per ticket.
The film is also showing in Camas, Wash, Portland and Boise.
