Teaser gets word out on Danny Way doc

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The highly anticipated world premiere of a movie about the life of pioneering skateboarder Danny Way was announced Wednesday.

ESPNDanny Way's friends have a few words for him.

The feature-length documentary "Waiting for Lightning" will hit the big screen next month at the South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival. The nine-day film fest begins March 9 in Austin, Texas, and is part of the greater SXSW event, which includes a 10-day music festival.

In the meantime, the creative minds behind the project have once again tightened the vice of anticipation with the recent release of an online teaser that contains not a single second of skateboarding footage.

In the 2½-half minute edit, a select lineup of industry heavies ponders a difficult inquiry: Describe Danny Way with one word.

The cast, ranging from Way's mom to Tony Hawk to BMX madman Mat Hoffman to big-wave surfer Laird Hamilton, dabble with some underlying themes of the pioneering skateboarder's psyche -- determined, passionate, superhuman -- but can't quite put their finger on it.

How could you? How do you sum up a guy who's dropped into a ramp from a helicopter? Or styled a 360 over the Great Wall of China? Or bomb-dropped from 82-feet above the Vegas Strip?

For a greater vision of the answer, fans will have to wait until director Jacob Rosenberg and his team at Bandito Brothers have put their finishing touches on "Waiting for Lightning." Rosenberg said that after its SXSW premiere, the film will get an April run through the international skate community and possibly a theatrical release later in the year.

"I never wanted to make a cookie-cutter skate doc that was a glorified highlight film only for skaters," Rosenberg added. "I wanted to make a film about an extraordinary human being who found a way to express himself and escape the difficulties in his life through this beautiful and highly personal sport that I happen to love."

Reached via e-mail, Way told ESPN Action Sports that he "wanted Jacob to make my movie because we grew up together and we were both mentored by the same person [the late Mike Ternasky of Plan B Skateboards]. We learned about life through many of the same experiences so our points of view and opinions are parallel. It wouldn't make sense for anybody else to make my movie. I think we have a mutual respect for each other and what we do, as I believe Jacob approaches filmmaking the same way I approach skateboarding, with innovation and unique style."

Back to Rosenberg for one word to describe his subject:

"Alive," Rosenberg submits. "When I see Danny I see the presence of life very clearly. I see someone who has been a survivor and I see someone who strives to push his own potential beyond any perceived limitations. It may seem like a weird word, but Danny and his actions on a skateboard show me both the pushing of the limits of life and the acceptance of the dance at the edge of danger, and to an extent his own mortality."

In addition to the above-mentioned teaser, here's another new trailer for "Waiting for Lightning":

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Keith Hamm

Action Sports

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