Rise

In 1961, U.S. World Figure Skating Team boarded the Sabena Flight 548 to participate in the World Championship in Prague.

The players were at their peak and some of them, were still in their early teens and they were touted to be the next big thing in the world of skating. The skaters were eyeing the championship as the most important thing that will soon put them on the road to success. But there was a different story in the making, one that no one had envisaged. In Brussels, Belgium, the ill-fated Sabena Flight 548 crashed, and the players who would have become the leaders in the world of skating, were reduced to grieving memories that still refuse to sidle away. ‘Rise’ blotches a standing ovation to the wonderful team through its sheer brilliance at depicting their lives and of those, who were inspired by this team. Working its way like a talk show, Rise introduces five current skaters to explain how the team inspired them, and how their lives have been affected by the former stars.

Each person tells his own account, revealing the effect that the works and attitudes of the now deceased players had on them. Relatives and friends of the ‘players on flight’ also make an appearance. Some of the ‘players on board’ like the Westerfeld sisters, Douglas Ramsay and Owen sisters get more screen presence because of the vivacity and exceptional talent, they had in store. The documentary film evokes a sense of pleasure that figure skating can induce in a person, and never sidelines itself from honoring the stars of yesteryears, who weren’t just meant to be reduced to few identified memorial pages, although that’s how it turned out to be.