‘2nd Chance’ Director on Making a Doc About an Inventor Who Shot Himself Almost 200 Times (Video)
With the new documentary “2nd Chance,” director Ramin Bahrani brings a story to the screen that seems almost too outlandish to be true — a self-made tycoon who invented the bulletproof vest in 1969, and used himself for target practice.The film, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, tells the eccentric story of inventor Richard Davis, including anecdotes about how he proved that the vest worked by shooting himself at point blank range almost 200 times, and went on to launch body armor company Second Chance. Bahrani said that while the wild stories embedded in Davis’ life made for a lively documentary, the inventor was still an “unreliable narrator” of sorts.