"Float"

JOHNSON CITY – While ethereal model aircraft may waft silently and serenely in cavernous halls, propelled by innocuous rubber bands and meticulous craftsmanship and engineering, the competition between the humans who create and compete with these F1D model airplanes is passionate, intense and anything but peaceful.   

On Monday, Nov. 18, at 7 p.m. in East Tennessee State University’s Ball Hall auditorium, Mary B. Martin School of the Arts will present a screening of the new documentary “Float” as part of the South Arts Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers. The free public film screening will be followed by a Q&A and reception with filmmakers Phil Kibbe and Benjamin Saks.

“Float” follows the tumultuous journey of Brett Sanborn – the youngest-ever U.S. team member – and Yuan Kang Lee, two American competitors as they prepare and compete for the F1D Free Flight World Championship in Serbia.

Sanborn is the “young gun,” a 30-year-old outlier where most competitors are well over 60 – primed to become world champion and ready to do whatever it takes to win.

Lee, who goes by Kang, is the newcomer to the team. What typically takes many decades to master, Kang has achieved in a year. His calm demeanor and approach and previous experience as a competitive golfer make him a worthy contender with the mind of a champion.

While the modern world is obsessed with attention and speed, these competitors like to take things slowly. Patience is their true talent, coupled with unwavering passion. After all, they do not make a dime competing, but instead deplete their savings to buy supplies, Kibbe says.

The 2019 documentary not only focuses on the competitors, but also on the construction of this elite class of model airplanes, a form that actually preceded and inspired the Wright Brothers. An F1D aircraft weighs as little as a $1 bill and flies unaided for over 40 minutes powered by a wound rubber band.

“The goal isn’t to fly, but to float: to prolong the wonder, essentially, of flying,” says The Boston Globe.

From advanced construction methods to high-tech materials, each plane is a unique example of engineering. Competitors spend countless hours anxiously hunched over workbenches, delicately assembling sophisticated components of the planes to achieve minimum weight. “Float” highlights the precise process of how these planes are built and the science that explains how they fly.

Devoted as they are, the community is dying. As the number of participants drops, it becomes uncertain if this sport will endure in an increasingly digital world.

“The hobby does need to get some attention in order to survive,” Kibbe says in a Cleveland Film Festival interview. “If this gets some younger folks to start doing it, that would be the best outcome you could possibly hope for.”

Perhaps the film will inspire other “underdogs,” as Kibbe calls them, to persevere. “If somebody knows nothing about airplanes or physics,” Saks says, “they could watch this movie and be inspired to be the next world champion in whatever they want to be.”

The filmmaking experience took Kibbe, Saks and crew more than eight years, filming in seven countries, ranging from Kent, Ohio, to Tokyo, Japan – including footage shot at ETSU’s Ballad Health Athletic Center (Mini Dome) (Ballad Health Athletic Center (Mini Dome)).

“It’s an interesting sidelight that some of the shots in the film were from regional competitions held in the ETSU Ballad Health Athletic Center (Mini Dome),” says Anita DeAngelis, director of the Martin School of the Arts. “What I find most fascinating and wondrous about this film, though, is the beauty of these planes and the way they fly. It’s almost like watching a dancer. It’s mesmerizing.”

The Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers is a program of South Arts. Southern Circuit screenings are funded in part by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.

For more information on the film, visit www.floatdocumentary.com. For more information on the event or film series, call the Martin School of the Arts at 423-439-8587 or visit www.etsu.edu/martin. For disability accommodations, call the ETSU Office of Disability Services at 423-439-8346.