You know it's a long festival when you find yourself waiting in the lobby of the Island Cinemas for your camerman (Eric Hensman from Lennexe Productions), eating a cold Wahoo fish sandwich left over from the day before, drinking theater coffee, and downing supplements from a ziplock bag - while talking to a short-film director who desperately wants you to come to his film - which you can't because of a scheduling conflict. But he continues anyway and all you're hoping is that you won't be burping up either the sandwich or the coffee in the upcoming screening. Fun.
The first film I saw today was "My Run."
Inspirational, motivational, unbelievable...words all too often used and overused by our hyperbolic society. You can't imagine the real meaning of those words until you understand Terry Hitchcock as portrayed in this terrific documentary of his life after his wife's death. (interview video)
Terry decided he wanted to raise awareness of single parenting after his wife, his
college sweetheart, died tragically of breast cancer leaving him with three young kids to raise. He sought some way to do this, to underscore how difficult it was to single-parent children and let all the kids and parents in a similar situation know that there is support for them. He settled on running a marathon. Well, more than one actually - seventy five; in seventy-five days.
Absorb and think about that for a moment: Seventy five marathon-distance runs (26 miles or more) in seventy five days.
Here's what he had going for him: his desire to do this.
Here's what he had going against him: He was 57; massively out of shape; overweight - fat actually; had high blood pressure; suffered a mild heart attack while training. Hadn't run for many, many years and even in his peak continually came in last. He discovered along the way that both ankles had severe stress fractures as well as a knee. And he was on several medications for various helath problems. At some point most of his team left him and he was reduced to just his eldest son with a car with 200,000 miles on it to finish more than half the race.
Oh, and the record for consecutive marathons? Three. No athete at the time, anywhere, had ever run more than three consecutive marathons. Why? Because even after one marathon, the body is so bruised and exhausted that you have to rest between events. And these are world-class, young, superbly conditioned athletes who run. Not a 57-yr-old man who looked like Santa Claus in a track suit chugging down the street.
So, in May of 1996, despite many misgivings from family and friends, Terry set out to run from Minnesota to Atlanta (2,000 miles) to the Summer Olympics. With him he initially had a team comprised of his sons, teens at the time, and some of their friends. Also, his dog. Sprits were high when Terry and his team began but they quickly discovered that it's one thing to run - it's an entirely different thing to run every day for 26+ miles.
Terry was physically exhausted in short time. His support team was suffering from logisitic nightmares - just washing his clothes up to five times a day to keep them clean and dry because he sweated through them on a regular basis was difficult. The only time Terry's 
socks were dry was when they put a new pair on him.
Along the way, he was almost run over. He ran in rain. Cold. In heat guaranteed to bring on heat exhaustion - which he suffered though at one point. He'd nightly call his friends to tell them he was going to quit just so they'd tell him why he shouldn't, why he couldn't - so he could then motivate himself to get up and do it for one more day. There were times when his son had to help lift him out of bed and help him walk. Then he'd start running and somehow find the will to continue.
In the end, five million steps later, Terry and his oldest son, Chris - the only one to complete the journey with him - ran together into Atlanta. In all that time, after all those miles, Terry still looked like Santa Claus running down the street. I think he actually gained weight, not lost it from beginning to end. Oddly enough, he's much slimmer now years after the brutal trek.
Narrated by Billy Bob Thorton, this is a remarkable film about a wholly remarkable man. Director, Tim VandeSteeg, and producer Mark Castaldo have insightfully pulled 
together interviews, photos, and archival footage to detail this one man's incredible physical, mental and emotional journey.
Terry was at the screening I attended. He said he still felt fine other than some knee pain once in a while. I had the pleasure of an on-camera quick interview with him and a much longer one with director VandeSteeg and producer Castaldo which I'll put up soon.
Honestly, I have never seen a more courageous and completely insane performance by any human being. It's totally impossible and yet it was done. Terry Hitchcock is the epitome of what is humanely possible when you bend your will to a task, no matter how the odds are stacked against you. Kudos to the filmmakers for bringing it to the screen.
See "My Run" at your first opportunity when it hits the theaters - I promise you will not believe it.
Movie website HERE
Terry Hitchcock's website HERE
Interview video HERE
I also attended "The Sicilian Girl" ( "La Siciliana Ribelle") later in the evening. Based on true events in 1991 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy, where dozens of mafiosa henchmen were brought to trial, it was both a very compelling film and a frustrating one.
17-year-old Rita Atria watched her father and brother being murdered by the mob in her village in Sicily and decided to turn state's evidence against the mob for revenge.
The mob was obviously not pleased with this and tried to have her killed on several occasions. Even witness protection and high security wasn't enough against these mobsters who wanted her death to ensure her silence.
At its core, we've seen this movie many times. What separates this film is not only the true nature of the events but the courageous and firey character of Rita, ably portrayed by Veronica D'Agostino. It seemed, tragically, that the young child who saw her father gunned down in the city square never had a destiny beyond one of pain and sorrow. This symbolically extends to the theme of being born into emotional and physical slavery in a place where the La Cosa Nostra - any gang really - exists.
And yet, Rita didn't bend to their will; she ultimately provided a means for the citizens of her village to fight and win a measure of victory against the murderers and thugs who arbitrarily controlled who lived and who died.
The frustrating part of the movie was the ending. I won't reveal how it resolves but it seemed so quick and anti-climactic that I wondered if I had missed something.
"The Sicilian Girl" is at times a powerful film but ultimately, I would have liked a bit more understanding of the young girl's journey. European filmmaking is different than American so there's that but I never truly got the sense that Rita had a fear of reprisals. I missed the "moment" where she decides on this doomed path that you would have seen clearly detailed in an 
American film. I can't imagine she would not have been emotionally shattered by what she was doing and yet a lot of that was soft-pedalled by the storyline.
Also, Rita's gangster father was a mystery in many ways as was her mother who apparently never loved her and constantly fought her over everything. Maybe some of this was cultural - I am of Italian heritage but I am not an Italian native so perhaps I missed some nuances that a native would get. Still, it seemd that some core emotional threads felt like they were missing here and it led to me not getting much of a real jolt from this film which details a life lived in darkness and despair.
"The Sicilian Girl" is a good film with bravura performances from all. But get a bit of the backstory first to fill in the gaps - I think it helps.
