From the age of 6, Russell and his sisters were raised by their mother, Karen, who according to the documentary left an allegedly abusive husband and moved from Florida to Wasilla, Alaska. Russell was affectionately nicknamed “Beebo” by friends and family. He was well-liked at school, noted for being kind, thoughtful, and funny, and after graduation moved to North Dakota to play college football. Throughout Skyking, director Patricia E. Gillespie shows home movies of Russell’s childhood and adolescence, a warm and bittersweet contrast to the documentary’s main archive material—recordings of Russell’s extended conversation with ATC, which his relatives and friends listen and react to throughout the film. The only person who refuses to listen to the recordings in the documentary is Karen, who says, “I can’t hear his voice, because his voice was very special. He spoke so well.”
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