Award-Winning Doc ‘Torn,’ About A Famed Mountaineer And The Family He Left Behind, Set For Disney+ Debut

EXCLUSIVE: National Geographic’s award-winning documentary Torn is about to make its streaming platform debut.

Disney+ announced it will premiere the film, directed by Max Lowe, on February 4. Torn tells the story of world-renowned mountain climber Alex Lowe, who was killed in an avalanche in the Himalayas in 1999. He left behind a wife, Jennifer, and three young boys—sons Max, Sam and Isaac. Max, now in his 30s, directed the documentary in part to come to terms with his father’s death, and to process all that came after it.

Accompanying Alex Lowe on that ill-fated expedition were fellow climber Conrad Anker, himself a legendary talent and a close friend of Lowe’s, and cameraman David Bridges. The avalanche also killed Bridges, and left Anker seriously injured but alive. Anker spent time with the Lowe family after Alex’s death and eventually Jennifer and Conrad fell in love and married. Anker adopted the boys and Sam and Isaac took the name Anker-Lowe, but Max kept Lowe as his last name.

In the film, Max confronts his ambivalence about his father’s passionate love of mountaineering, a self-fulfilling pursuit that regularly took Alex away from his family and ultimately cost him his life. And the younger Lowe and Anker attempt to bridge an awkwardness that long existed between them – Max uneasy with Conrad’s new role in his family and Conrad harboring terrible survivor’s guilt.

“I have put everything of myself into Torn, a film truly unique in my career in its detailing of my own family’s heart opening exercise in vulnerability around our shared trauma, redemption and love,” Lowe said in a statement. “I couldn’t be more honored and thrilled to be able to share our story with the world on one of the biggest stages with our upcoming Disney+ launch.”

The bodies of Alex Lowe and Bridges remained trapped in the snow and ice of Shishapangma, one of the highest peaks in the world. But in 2016 the bodies were spotted by a climber and the Lowe sons, accompanied by their mother and Anker, traveled to the mountain to recover the remains. One of the most powerful scenes in the film occurs as the family takes Alex’s body down the mountain for cremation.

At a screening of Torn at the Camden International Film Festival in Maine last fall, Lowe described sharing the film with audiences as “quite emotional, on a lot of different levels. Not only because of the content and the catharsis personally, but… hearing people’s stories about their own traumatic experiences in life, whatever they might be, it’s powerful stuff. It’s hard… but it’s why I tell the story at all.”

Torn premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in September, 2021, and went on to win best feature at the Banff Film Festival in Alberta, Canada. It was one of several National Geographic documentaries to qualify for Oscar consideration this year.

The documentary is directed by first-time feature filmmaker Lowe with Chris Murphy as producer. Producing for Lightbox is two-time Academy Award winner Simon Chinn (Man on Wire, Searching for Sugar Man) and Academy Award nominee Jonathan Chinn (Black Sheep, LA 92); the editor is Michael Harte (Three Identical Strangers).