Loading Docs 2014 - The Jump

Web (Full Length) – 2014

"Balls, bungy and videotape" is the tagline for this Loading Docs short film. The Jump celebrates the DIY spirit of unsung Kiwi hero Chris Sigglekow — who leapt off a bridge in jeans in 1980 for arguably the first modern bungy jump. Sigglekow recalls, and VHS footage shows, the pioneering jumps: from a boxing bag, to his and AJ Hackett’s famous Auckland Harbour Bridge leap. The first doco by ad director Alex Sutherland, Jump won 140,000+ views when it was made a Vimeo Staff Pick, and it was shared by surfing legend Laird Hamilton. Caution: contains Stubbies and Speedos.

This is a personal story for me. Chris Sigglekow is my father-in-law and I’ve known the family since I was about eight years old. I can remember coils of bungy cord lying around their house. The film has been in my head for a long time. What I also loved about this story is the quintessentially pioneering Kiwi spirit,, and Chris perfectly exemplifies that point where science and research give way to just bloody doing it
– Director Alex Sutherland