Film: Documentary The Record Breaker will fill you up with joy

Date
22 November 2013

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Health-food store manager Ashrita Furman from Queens, New York, is no ordinary man. Since 1979 he has set 350 world records, ranging from the ridiculous to the downright brilliant, and now after 34 years of ardently testing his limits filmmaker Brian McGinn has recognised Ashrita for the jewel of humanity that he is and decided to make a short film about him.

The Record Breaker sees Ashrita balancing a lawn-mower on his chin, doing some long-distance skipping, walking in the world’s heaviest shoes, blowing a stamp for the fastest 100 metres while carrying a three-toed sloth in one arm and training to climb Machu Picchu on stilts, and all that within the first two and a half minutes of footage. Even better than the list of feats achieved, though, is the satisfaction and fulfilment he gets from each record broken, and the childlike joy that he seems to emanate everywhere he goes. Watch the film in full above; it’s guaranteed to improve even the gloomiest of weeks.

Above

Brian McGinn: The Record Breaker

Above

Brian McGinn: The Record Breaker

Above

Brian McGinn: The Record Breaker

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About the Author

Maisie Skidmore

Maisie joined It’s Nice That fresh out of university in the summer of 2013 as an intern before joining full time as an Assistant Editor. Maisie left It’s Nice That in July 2015.

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