Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi Net Worth – $2 million
What is Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s net worth?
Introduction
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi is an American filmmaker.
She is best known as the co-director of the Academy-Award-winning 2019 documentary Free Solo.
The Origin Story
Vasarhelyi’s exact date of birth is not a matter of public record; it is believed that she was born in either 1977 or 1978.
She is the daughter of Marina Vasarhelyi, an administrator at Manhattanville College, and Miklos Vasarhelyi, a college professor. Vasarhelyi is of Hungarian and Chinese (Hong Kong) descent.
“My family traveled a lot because both my parents were immigrants,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.
“To see my grandparents, we’d have to go abroad. And I feel like that had a really strong influence on what type of kid I became or what type of kid I was. My love was always in books. I was one of those avid readers.”
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Raised on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, she attended the prestigious Brearley School for girls, and later studied among the elite at Princeton.
At the age of 12, Vasarhelyi got her first taste of the world of television, hosting a Nickelodeon TV show named Totally Kids Sports. According to Vasarhelyi, no extant footage remains of the TV show – a development that she sees as “good.”
Documentary Career
While studying at Princeton, Vasarhelyi made her first documentary in Hong Kong, under the patronage of NBC newsman Peter Jennings.
The documentary, entitled A Normal Life, documented the lives of seven young Kosovans trying to live their lives in the shadow of the Balkan conflict of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Vasarhelyi noted that the only thing separating her from her Kosovan contemporaries was circumstance.
Vasarhelyi was drawn to the African country of Senegal following her debut documentary, and spent most of her first ten years post-college making documentaries about it.
The country holds special significance for Vasarhelyi – she frequently visited with her family, met her future husband (Jimmy Chin) there, and took her daughter there when she was still a baby.
Vasarhelyi connected with her husband when the two of them, upon her return from Senegal, collaborated upon a documentary of his. During the process, the two discovered their feelings for one another and fell in love.
The documentary in question, Meru, went on to win much critical acclaim and was a darling of the indie film festivals.
Despite failing to snag the Best Documentary Oscar, it marked the beginning of a fruitful personal and professional relationship between Vasarhelyi and Chin.
Free Solo
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Vasarhelyi and Chin’s biggest success, however, was with the 2018 documentary Free Solo.
The film was heralded by critics as a marvel in both technical competence and emotive storytelling, and documented the attempt of free-climber Alex Honnold to ‘free solo’ (that is, to climb without ropes or protective equipment) the sheer rock face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.
The climb had never been successfully accomplished, and was considered remarkably dangerous.
Prior to making the film, both Vasarhelyi and Chin had been concerned about the ethical ramifications of making a documentary in which their subject could well have died.
“As a director, people are trusting you with their lives,” Vasarhelyi said in a 2019 interview. She added: “With their stories.”
During the making of the documentary, the couple also faced significant technical challenges.
It was important to them and to Honnold that the latter never felt as if he were being filmed, and it was equally important that the invisible hand of the documentary crew remain so.
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To that end, most of the cameramen employed were themselves experienced climbers, and they kept their distance from Honnold so as not to distract him or interfere with his climb.
A specially created microphone was placed in Honnold’s chalk bag to ensure that they could capture audio without being intrusive.
Free Solo was a critical success and garnered a huge number of awards, including the People’s Choice Documentary at the Toronto Film Festival, four awards at the Cinema Eye Honors, the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentaries at the Directors Guild of America Awards, the British Academy Award for Best Documentary, the Academy Award for the Best Documentary Feature, and a staggering nine Emmys.
Husband & Children
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Vasarhelyi married her husband, Jimmy Chin, in 2013.
They have two children.
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Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi – Net Worth
So, how much is Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi worth?
Vasarhelyi earned most of her wealth from working as a documentary filmmaker. She was involved in many projects, including — Return to Space, Free Solo, and Abstract: The Art of Design.
Therefore, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi has an estimated net worth of $2 million.
Note – Vasarhelyi’s wealth is cumulated with her husband’s.
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