Hulu is excited to add three new documentaries to our Holiday lineup. In addition to two made-for-TV documentaries, Amos ‘n’ Andy: Anatomy of a Controversy and America’s Prince: The John F. Kennedy Jr. Story, we’re introducing a new documentary, Speed and Angels, which is available exclusively on Hulu. To mark the premiere, we asked the film’s director and producer to contribute to our blog today. They’ve shared their Speed and Angels stories below.

From Peyton Wilson, Director, Speed and Angels

I’m a filmmaker. I’m also a pretty liberal woman and I was living in San Francisco when Paco [Chierici, the film's producer] called me up and said, “Let’s make a kick-ass film about Navy fighter pilots.” “Hmmm … what? Who? Do I care about jets? Are fighter pilots really that interesting? Not my world.” But Paco pestered me until I grew curious. Entering a Navy base is an alien experience; hanging out in a squadron full of fighter pilots is more than surreal. My fear melted in about two minutes. The guys were great, deep, intelligent, funny, relaxed; they were real.

Before I knew it, I began to document their world. While I still wasn’t that into jets, I was fascinated by their passion. Over the next few months I went to the Officer’s Club and learned what a “butterfly” start to a dogfight is. I had never been with a group of people who so fiercely loved what they did and who’d all fought against some steep odds to achieve their dream. That was the story I knew I had to tell.

I went where they went: aircraft carriers, their homes, flight simulators, classrooms, etc. And I was always on the ramp waiting for their return from a flight. It was extremely personal. Even the aerial footage had to be personal. My mantra: put the audience in the cockpit. Eventually, two stories rose to the surface: Meagan and Jay. Two pilots who — had they listened to adults when they were teenagers — absolutely shouldn’t be in the cockpit: a woman who decided she was going to be a fighter pilot at a time when women weren’t allowed to, and a young man who is lucky to be alive, much less flying. For two years I attached myself to Meagan and Jay. Their journeys are heartbreaking, scary, breathtaking and deeply moving. By understanding their world in such a personal way, I finally began to share their fascination with jets. And their continual fight to go after their dream changed something in me forever.

From Paco Chierici, Fighter Pilot/Producer, Speed and Angels

I first saw Top Gun in the fall of ‘86 as a twenty-year-old and I was blown away. I had flown in the back seat of an F-14 Tomcat just three months prior and was still spinning. I fell in love that summer — with a big hunk of aluminum. I loved everything about that big beast: the smell of the jet exhaust, the sinewy shoulders, the impossibly thin fuselage, the massive engines sprouting rudders and elevators the size of the wings on most planes, and, of course, the ridiculous thrust.

The movie and that plane are forever linked in my mind. The aerial and carrier scenes are iconic. When I was in flight school, we used to play the first five minutes to get pumped up before a big flight. The quotes are ingrained in the American lexicon: “Feel the need … the need for speed,” “I could tell you but then I’d have to kill you,” and the overused but always fun “Goose, take me to bed or lose me forever!”

The problem I had with Top Gun can be summed up thusly: in fighter squadrons only the biggest moron is now given the call sign “Maverick.” I felt the need … to make a movie that blew away the flying and carrier scenes and showed the real people, the real drama, the real call signs — the real Top Gun. Lucky for me, I’m friends with Peyton Wilson.

– - –

Thanks, Paco and Peyton for sharing your inspiration with us. Hulu for the Holidays has a Sean Penn feature in store tomorrow.

Rebecca (),
Editor