Kaboom!
2015 · United States
Directed by Brady Welch, Colin Sonner
Genres: biography, documentary
A New York Times Op-Doc profiling Rich and Dee Gibson, a married couple who run Rich's Incredible Pyro in Rockford, Illinois, and have built their life together around their shared passion for designing pyrotechnic displays and blowing things up for airshows.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Most people would've made this saccharine—two sweethearts blowing things up, cue the indie folk score—but Welch and Sonner resist the trap entirely, letting the pyrotechnics speak without winking at the absurdity, which somehow makes it funnier and weirder than any arch treatment could manage.
A structurally elegant profile that understands how to use the Op-Doc form: the filmmakers locate formal rigor in the precise choreography of the Gibson's shared passion, letting composition and editing rhythm mirror the technical precision of pyrotechnic design itself.
The decision to shoot the displays in full daylight—stripping away the nocturnal drama you'd expect—transforms the entire emotional register and forces you to watch the couple's faces instead of the explosions, which turns out to be the actual subject all along.
Reviews
A documentary short about a married couple who create pyrotechnic displays for airshows.