was that the film should be shortened in length, and Guggenheim agreed. Release From the Sky Down premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on September 8, 2011. It marked the first time in the festival's history that a documentary was shown as the opening film. Bono, The Edge, and Guggenheim attended the premiere and appeared on stage prior to the film's showing to make brief remarks. The first television broadcast of From the Sky Down was held in the UK on BBC Television on October 9, 2011, as part of the Imagine series, while the first American broadcast was on October 29, 2011, on the Showtime television network. Two days later, a 74-minute version of the film was commercially released on DVD in the "Über Deluxe" and "Super Deluxe" editions of the 20th anniversary reissue of Achtung Baby. Canadian distribution rights were acquired by BBC Worldwide Canada, who licensed it for broadcast on Super Channel on November 19, 2011. Standalone copies of the full, 85-minute director's cut of From the Sky Down were released on Blu-ray and DVD on December 12, 2011, with bonus footage of the band performing at Hansa Studios and a question-and-answer session with Bono, The Edge, and Guggenheim from TIFF. Reception Critics' reviews of From the Sky Down were mixed. Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film an enthusiastic review, describing it as "one of the most transcendent close-up looks at the process of creating rock & roll I've ever seen." In his opinion, the film was a "stirring testament to what it really means when four people in this world can create magical things because they band together." Hank Steuver of The Washington Post called it an "intriguing" documentary that "becomes a revealing and even enlightening meditation on the mystery of why some bands stay together and some don't." The reviewer said the film is "refreshingly blunt and beautifully assembled" and praised Guggenheim for asking the band tough questions about that period in their history. Brad Wheeler of The Globe and Mail gave the film a three-out-of-four star rating, calling it an "essential companion piece" to the reissue of Achtung Baby. Wheeler wrote that "the process of U2 dreaming itself a new fashion while struggling to get its joy back is tightly and adroitly explored". Radio broadcaster Alan Cross wrote that the viewer will "come out with a new appreciation of