Christopher Reeve Doc Chronicles His Superhero Stardom and Life Post-Accident

Warner Bros. has released the official trailer for “Super/Man,” a documentary about the life of Christopher Reeve.

Directed by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui, “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” chronicles the late actor’s journey to superstardom as Superman and his relentless pursuit of a cure for spinal cord injuries after becoming a quadriplegic following a horse-riding accident. Reeve’s family participated in the creation of the documentary, which includes personal archive material.

“It is a gift. We’re so lucky,” his son Matthew Reeve told Variety. “We not only have his films to look at but a collection of home movies to dig up and go through and interviews on YouTube of him to pull up. Seeing things I hadn’t seen before didn’t change my perception of him but enhanced it…like some rare Australian interview done in 1977 that was uploaded, and I didn’t know existed. It was pretty cool to see that and uncover a lot more material than we knew about.”

Variety’s chief film critic Owen Gleiberman praised “Super/Man” — which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January — calling the film a “moving, wrenching, compellingly well-made documentary” in his review.

“We go into ‘Super/Man’ knowing the outlines of Reeve’s story (or more than that, for anyone who read his 1998 autobiography ‘Still Me’),” Gleiberman wrote. “But God is in the details, and the documentary fills in his life with an absorbing richness.”

“Super/Man” will play in select theaters on Sept. 21, followed by an encore presentation on Reeve’s birthday, Sept. 25. A wider, traditional theatrical release has not been announced.

Watch the trailer below.

Source: Variety, Warner Bros.