Philippe and Alex on Wire

Oscar campaign season is in full swing with docs in focus on a very chilly evening in downtown Manhattan. The Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund hosted a screening of James Marsh’s “Man on Wire,” already tipped as an Oscar favorite. The film’s subject, Philippe Petit, who daringly walked between the Twin Towers in NYC as the two buildings were completed back in the early ‘70s atop a high wire, joined in on the discussion post-screening. Alex Gibney, director of last year’s Oscar-winning doc, “Taxi to the Dark Side” hosted the Q&A with Petit, who revealed he will soon do another daring walk in NYC “either legally or illegally.” He also paid tribute to the city that immortalized him and has become his new home. “[New York] is half ugly and half magnificent…but it’s inhabited by the world. I love that it’s inhabited by the whole world and its heart always pulates.”