Working closely with Sid Lee, we shaped decades of archival footage into a film about exploration, endurance, and the spirit of the brand. Built from hundreds of hours of historic material, the piece was driven by a great track, emotion, and the challenge of making 50 years of footage feel like one cohesive story. The spot went on to win a Cannes Lion for Editing.
The North Face "50 Years"
Working closely with Sid Lee, we shaped decades of archival footage into a film about exploration, endurance, and the spirit of the brand. Built from hundreds of hours of historic material, the piece was driven by a great track, emotion, and the challenge of making 50 years of footage feel like one cohesive story. The spot went on to win a Cannes Lion for Editing.
The film was originally in progress elsewhere before being brought over to be re-cut from the ground up. Working from hundreds of hours of archival material—spanning expeditions, climbs, and rarely seen moments—the challenge was shaping a cohesive emotional arc from something inherently fragmented.
Cut to a track that became the spine of the film, the edit was built around rhythm and restraint—letting moments of endurance, failure, and breakthrough unfold with intention rather than momentum alone.
Rather than leaning into spectacle, the focus became the physical and psychological cost of exploration—the quiet strain behind the achievement. The goal was to avoid a retrospective tone, instead shaping something that feels immediate and present—less a reflection on history, and more a continuation of it.
The film was originally in progress elsewhere before being brought over to be re-cut from the ground up. Working from hundreds of hours of archival material—spanning expeditions, climbs, and rarely seen moments—the challenge was shaping a cohesive emotional arc from something inherently fragmented.
Cut to a track that became the spine of the film, the edit was built around rhythm and restraint—letting moments of endurance, failure, and breakthrough unfold with intention rather than momentum alone.
Rather than leaning into spectacle, the focus became the physical and psychological cost of exploration—the quiet strain behind the achievement. The goal was to avoid a retrospective tone, instead shaping something that feels immediate and present—less a reflection on history, and more a continuation of it.
