By Carol Tannenhauser

On October 5, 7 & 8, on the landscape between Sheep Meadow and the 72nd Street Cross Drive in Central Park, the Central Park Conservancy will hold its 18th Annual Central Park Conservancy Film Festival, presented by National Geographic. The festival, which is free, will feature three documentaries. Here’s how the Conservancy describes them.

October 5: The Rescue — making its New York premiere — chronicles the enthralling, against-all-odds story that transfixed the world in 2018: the daring rescue of 12 boys and their coach from deep inside a flooded cave in Northern Thailand. Academy Award–winning directors and producers E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin keep viewers on the edge of their seats with a wealth of never-before-seen material and exclusive interviews that piece together the high stakes mission, highlighting the efforts of the Royal Thai Navy SEALs and US Special Forces and detailing the expert cave divers’ audacious venture to bring the boys to safety.

October 7: Meru — After suffering dramatic setbacks in their lives, three close friends who are among the world’s best professional climbers battle their complicated pasts, inner demons, and nature’s harshest elements in an attempt to confront the Shark’s Fin on Mount Meru, the most technically complicated and dangerous peak in the Himalayas, one that has never been scaled to completion.

October 8: Free Solo — A stunning, intimate, and unflinching portrait of the free soloist climber Alex Honnold as he prepares to achieve his lifelong dream: climbing the face of the world’s most famous rock—the 3,000-foot El Capitan in Yosemite National Park—without a rope. Celebrated as one of the greatest athletic feats of any kind, Honnold’s climb set the ultimate standard: perfection or death. Succeeding in this challenge, Honnold enters his story in the annals of human achievement. Free Solo is both an edge-of-your seat thriller and an inspiring portrait of an athlete who exceeded our current understanding of human physical and mental potential.