Haunted for thirty years by a dream of a female friend's death eight years before she died in a skydiving accident, filmmaker Paul Gorman hopes to unlock the mystery of his dream by making a film about her. Gorman's memoir tells the remarkable story about the making of his 2014 award winning documentary film, "Ride The Sky".
Gorman retraces pioneering skydiver Joan Carson's nomadic life from the time of her death in 1981 back to her childhood. His journey uncovers a cult-like band of skydivers addicted to the "adrenaline rush" of living on the edge and jumping out of airplanes at their homemade airport in the wilderness. And the queen of this colony is former cheerleader Joan Carson.
Continuing his quest, Gorman discovers the meaning of his dream locked away in a painful secret from Carson's past and more. In the end, this past reconnects with the present in a most surprising and emotional way.
Haunted for thirty years by a dream of a female friend's death eight years before she died in a skydiving accident, filmmaker Paul Gorman hopes to unlock the mystery of his dream by making a film about her. Gorman's memoir tells the remarkable story about the making of his 2014 award winning documentary film, "Ride The Sky".
Gorman retraces pioneering skydiver Joan Carson's nomadic life from the time of her death in 1981 back to her childhood. His journey uncovers a cult-like band of skydivers addicted to the "adrenaline rush" of living on the edge and jumping out of airplanes at their homemade airport in the wilderness. And the queen of this colony is former cheerleader Joan Carson.
Continuing his quest, Gorman discovers the meaning of his dream locked away in a painful secret from Carson's past and more. In the end, this past reconnects with the present in a most surprising and emotional way.
On a sunny Memorial Day Weekend in 1981 an attractive brunette, named Joan Carson, donned her signature white jumpsuit, harnessed on a parachute in the ground floor of the recently constructed Osprey Skydiving Club’s hangar, boarded a two seat Cessna 152 single-engine airplane and jumped out over Lost Prairie, Montana.
Although a veteran of over 700 jumps, both of her parachutes failed to inflate and she impacted the ground at 120 miles per hour dying minutes later. She was thirty years old.
The events surrounding that day have remained a mystery for almost 40 years. Likewise, the reason she was a skydiver is perplexing. Raised in suburbia, and later living in San Francisco, she was sophisticated. With her death, she left few clues as to why she moved to the wilderness and jumped out of airplanes in spite of suffering two serious injuries. Carson was friendly and outgoing in person, but kept details of her private life tucked away.
In 1981, Lost Prairie, which lies 30 miles west of Kalispell, was a remote valley. Little has changed since then, other than Lost Prairie Skydive Center. An oasis in the wilderness, it resembles an ancient Kootenai Indian village, where it is flanked by pine tree covered hills and guarded by Meadow Peak Butte rising directly behind it.
The valley is an enigma. Surrounded by remoteness and pristine beauty, it is the last place you would expect to find skydivers, and see a person jump out of an airplane 10,000 feet above the valley and plummet to their death in the tall prairie grass waving hypnotically in the breeze. But that is what happened to Joan Carson in 1981. It was a date I will never forget.
The experiences I had with Joan left an indelible mark on my soul, and in 2011 inspired me to make a documentary film about her, called “Ride The Sky”, which screened in Lost Prairie on the 30th anniversary of her death.
This story is about my personal experiences with Joan, the formative years that shaped me into the person and filmmaker I am today, and the making of the film. My story would be incomplete without hers.
As a side note: The world is presently experiencing a pandemic known as COVID-19. To date, the virus has infected more than 842,000 people world-wide and caused at least 41,000 deaths. For the past two weeks, here in California, we have been instructed to ‘Shelter in Place’ in our homes, where it is recommended if we venture out to buy food and supplies or walk for exercise that we maintain social separation of at least six feet.
Paul Gorman
April 1, 2020
"Running Down a Dream" tells the story of an author and his muse. Joan Carson was a friendly acquaintance of Paul Gorman. As their paths intersected, he had a dream that foreshadowed her death. The dream bore fruit when Joan Carson died in a skydiving accident that correlated with Paul's dream.
An admitted analytical thinker, Paul couldn't shake Joan's death, the dream he had, nor the why(s) behind what made Joan skydive to begin with, especially continuing in the sport after serious injuries. What came out of his need to get to the root of the matter was the making of a movie, "Ride the Sky." On-location interviews bring Joan's life to the forefront and help us understand what propelled her. The freedom and release of all that burdened her when she was in the air, having jumped out of an airplane.
Having read the book and subsequently watched the movie (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oHxxO8OLVE), they are invaluable companion pieces, better together than apart. While the book's writing is superb on its own, seeing the people brought to life out of your mind's eye and into present reality via video brings everything into a crisp, clear picture where a reader's imagination of time and place is replaced by complete, rustic truth. For nonfiction, what a bonus gift a movie is to watch and indulge in shortly after reading (or vice versa!)
The writing within "Running Down a Dream" is personable, easy to follow, clips along at a good pace, and the edits are well done. Here the author gets to indulge in his memories more than within the movie itself. A piece for him critical that others found incongruant as it related to the film. The film focuses primarily on skydiving and Joan Carson's place in history as one of the first female skydiver's in what had traditionally been an all male sport. More specifically, her life and legacy, how she lived and how she died.
This book is a gift for those that loved Joan. A gift for those that know nothing about skydiving and for those that are well seasoned within the sport. An honor and a praise for what many may not understand. A sub-culture to be celebrated while others of us, myself included, who might be left cringing at the thought of such risque behavior. Perhaps not turned off by the thought of death-defying feats in and of themselves but more so the time spent grounded where drinking in excess and nakededness were found fun and a way to live it up, having a good time. Freedom, some would say, gone wrong. However, the uncouth can be found hilarious if viewed through the proper lense, and laughter is the best medicine.
One of the things found in skydiving, and the subculture that exists, is "home." It's the sense of friends that are family, the camaraderie that is present that causes people to want to stay and put down roots. Joan Carson was a trail blazer and a woman before her time. Self-made and smart, living her best life while overcoming a deep and profound sadness and grief that could only be escaped while she rode the sky.