Hot Aches Productions premiered their latest film Redemption: The James Pearson Story at Kendal Mountain Festival on Friday 21st November.

The film follows James and his early climbing career highlights up until his ascent of Rhapsody E11 at Dumbarton Rock (UKC News Report) in September this year. After having climbed The Walk of Life in 2008 and given it the overly-ambitious grade of E12 - which was subsequently downgraded to E9 by Dave Macleod - James began to question his position as a top-end trad climber amidst scepticism from the British climbing community.

After leaving the UK to start a new life in Europe, James became more all-rounded as a climber and broadened his horizons. However, there remained one route which signalled unfinished business for James - Rhapsody. Having previously dismissed the route and declared himself unmotivated to try it in 2008, James felt that by finally climbing Rhapsody he could redeem himself as a climber.

We caught up with Directors Paul Diffley and Chris Prescott to find out more about the film. 

What was it about James' story that attracted you? 

Paul: Story is at the heart of all Hot Aches films and I think James has a great story. Redemption follows James's climbing life over 10 years, from age 17 to 27. We all change and develop massively over that time, I know I was a very different person at age 17 than I was at 27. In normal life these changes take place gradually so are easily missed, fortunately we had access to archive footage of James throughout this period. From early footage shot by SlackJaw of James climbing hard grit (The Zone E9, Knocking E9, Equilibrium E10) and then Hot Aches' footage of The Promise E10/E8, The Groove E10 and of course The Walk of Life E12 / E9! We went back to all the original tapes and searched for moments which document James' journey. 

How did you handle capturing his fall from grace? 

Paul: After talking with James at length off camera, I could see how the events of his life had resulted in him making the grading mistake on The Walk of Life. I hope the film helps to explain how that happened. Although I must stress that the film is not a pro-Pearson propaganda film, it is a true and honest documentary. I pride myself in being a very honest filmmaker, I would never twist the story just to make a better film. James' fall from grace is already documented at length on the UKC forums, in fact we use screen shots to give a taste of some of the criticism James faced at the time. I wanted the audience to understand how this criticism made James feel and what effect it had on his life. 

Is there anything in Redemption which a Hot Aches film fan wouldn't have seen before? What's new?

Paul: I think Redemption is very much the quintessential Hot Aches film: A strong story-driven piece, understated and honest. 

However, I think 2014 will be known as the year of the drone! For the first time all films seem to contain drone shots. I've always had quite an old school style to my films, yet now I'm working with Chris Prescott at Hot Aches, Chris has forced me to up our game in terms of production values. So yeah we now have drone shots, camera cranes and a little more fancy post production. Although I have tried to limit this new fancy stuff to just a few shot, story will always be king at Hot Aches. I also think that the sound design on this film is the best we have ever produced, again credit goes to Chris Prescott for his work on this. 

Chris: The last couple of years have seen a huge progression in the techniques and tools available to adventure filmmakers. It now seems that everybody with a vague interest in making films about the outdoors has access to a GoPro or even a drone. We have tried to embrace these new technologies at Hot Aches and with the help of Matt Pycroft we got some great aerial footage of Dumbarton that gives a totally new perspective on the cliff. Having said that I think it’s important not to overdo it with the use of new technology and that having a strong narrative structure should be the foundation of any good production.

What do you hope to communicate to the audience with the film?

Chris: Hopefully it will give a better understanding of James’ life up until this point and provide some reasoning as to the decisions he made in the past regarding his routes. Aside from that we hope the film will show that it’s often best to face your demons head on (perhaps with a little persuasion from Caroline!) and that in doing so it’s the best way to overcome them and move on.

Paul: I just hope the audience will be able to sit back and enjoy a great story about one of the world's best climbers. 

The film is now available to download here. Watch an extract from the film below: