Bolder Docs Presents The Florida Premiere of Conquering Kilimanjaro

Posted on by Thor

Conquering Kilimanjaro is the first feature-length documentary from the Emmy Award-winning team at Growing Bolder Broadcasting. Conquering Kilimanjaro follows an inspiring group of 16 cancer survivors and cancer community advocates as they attempt to climb the world’s highest freestanding mountain in Tanzania, Africa. Conquering Kilimanjaro celebrates the irrepressible nature of the human spirit, providing hope and inspiration.

 

Wendy Chioji, a Central Florida news anchor who beat breast cancer in 2001, was part of the climb just weeks after completing radiation and chemotherapy for thymic carcinoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer. The cancer has now returned and Wendy has been accepted into a clinical trial that offers new hope. “Wendy will beat this like she beat breast cancer,” says Conquering Kilimanjaro filmmaker Marc Middleton. ”But we want to pause for a moment and make certain that she understands how much she means to so many. Wendy has always been about providing hope and inspiration to others and we want to return the favor. The night will included a special tribute and we’re donating a portion of the proceeds from the screening to LIVESTRONG in Wendy’s name.”

This incredibly documentary follows the lives of the climbers, first on the home front when they discover they have cancer and then on the mountain which becomes a symbol of their fight for life. Having just seen Everest in IMAX 3D I have a deep respect for the dangers any mountain climber faces. The fact that for cancer survivors wanted to reach the summit is inspiring. The 16 members of the Kilimanjaro summit team were, for the most part,
complete strangers before meeting one another just one day before their
adventure began. This climb built a lifelong bond between them all.

The film documented the romance of Bree and Stephen Sandlin. Bree is a marketing executive for Shell Oil, a mother of two and a breast cancer survivor,
Bree celebrated her one year “cancerversary” on Mt. Kilimanjaro with
her husband who she calls “the most sacrificing person I have
ever met.”  On day 6 of the climb it snowed. Bree developed mountain sickness. She was given a steroid shot, but if it didn’t work, she would have to turn back. “I am stronger than this mountain, that is all that matters.” she said as she continued the climb battling nausea and headaches.

Dr. Robert Masson,  celebrated his birthday on the climb. LIVESTRONG CEO Doug Ulman was also on the climb. The empowering work his organization does was tarnished by Armstrong’s fall from grace. Doug had malignant melanoma twice when he was 19 years old, so he understands the need for an empowering community of people who have survived cancer and want to give back hope to those who are battling cancer.

Day 7 was summit day. All 16 climbers left camp in the morning darkness with head lamps on. It would be a ten hour climb to the top. Wendy Chioji developed a nose bleed. Above 19,000 feet, every step was a challenge. The strong bond between the climbers gave them strength. On average, 37% of climbers to attempt to climb Kilimanjaro reach the top.  Every climber fought their way to the top and ultimately all 16 climbers made it to the summit. They often put the needs of other climbers above their own. There are 32 million cancer survivors in the world. It is important not only to survive, but to thrive. Wendy said, “It was the most amazing, life changing experience of my life.” Bree said, “You can do anything you set your mind to.”

“Hope is a waking dream.” – Aristotle

Florida Film Festival

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I went to a Florida Film Festival press preview for “After Winter, Spring“directed by Judith Lit at the Enzian Theater, (1300 S South Orlando Avenue, Maitland, FL.) This is a love story for the farmers in Perigord,
France, which has been continuously cultivated for over five thousand
years. One hundred years ago, half of the population of France were
farmers. Now less than 3% are. Will the Perigord peasants be the last
generation to employ and sustain the old methods? Will the world lose
their “old peasant wisdom” of prudence, respect, and love of the earth?
Filmed over four years, “After Winter, Spring” is a treasure trove of
great food and farming traditions. With fascinating detail, it captures
the roots of farm-to-table and the tenacity of the people who have taken
one season at a time for generations. The filmmaker, an American ex-pat
and Perigord neighbor, was raised on her own family’s farm in
Pennsylvania. Her bond to the land and the people who love it translates
into an insightful, lyrical tribute to a way of life on the verge of
extinction. 

Judith grew up on a small farm in Pennsylvania. She saw how her parents had to sell off the farm in small parcels until there was no land left to farm. When she traveled to France later in life, she fell in love with the quaint farming life. She packed everything and went to France to rediscover her roots. She interviewed her farming neighbors to learn about their more natural way of living.

The film didn’t only show small farms as a bucolic ideal. Three generations of women ran a goose farm. In a rather graphic scene, one of the women answered questions as she shoved a funnel deep down a gooses neck to force feed it. She massaged the goose’s neck to force it to swallow. The harsher sides of farming were shown, like shaving a slaughtered pig with a machete or breaking a chicken’s neck and then plucking the feathers.

A tobacco farmer bragged about the beauty of his hand harvested crop. “The more beautiful it is, the prouder we are. It (the tobacco) sings on the verge of being brittle.” All the farmers are trying to find a path through change. It is hard to compete against huge industrial farms that have multi-million dollar machines doing all the work. The smaller farming families feel their land helps preserve habitat. Since they are attentive to the land, they become more attentive to themselves and others. As one farmer stated, “I accept what life gives me. I can’t do otherwise.”

The one shred of hope is that people have grown sick of over processed food-like products. A younger generation is returning to the fields to live lives closer to nature.  Farm to table, has become a new battle cry. Perhaps the pendulum can swing back. Perhaps Spring can follow a Winter of industrialized neglect.

Darius Goes West

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I went to a screening of a documentary film titled “Darius Goes West.” Darius Weems has Duchenne muscular dystrophy which restricts him to a wheelchair. Darius’s brother Mario Weems died from the same disease at age 19.  Logan Smalley was a counselor at a ‘Project REACH‘ camp, a facility set
up to give the experiences of being at ‘camp’ to children with
disabilities, there he met Darius. After reading a copy of a letter Darius had penned to MTV‘s show Pimp My Ride
in which Darius had asked them to consider refurbishing his wheelchair,
Smalley organized a cross-country trip for Darius to Los Angeles, which
to the group became known as the ‘Darius Goes West Project’.  Though the initial letter had been ignored, they decided to get Darius out west so he could meet the producers face to face. The film documents the trip west with Darius and 11 of his friends.

Darius had never left his hometown of Athens Georgia so this road trip was the adventure of a lifetime. The term “goslabi” on the filmmakers T shirts referred to a scene in the movie where Darius was offered goslabi in a Chinese restaurant. Goslabi is a hot past often offered with sushi. Darius took a whole teaspoon and the scene showed his shocked reaction. The friendship and bonds between the characters became clear over the course of the film. This prank, rather than cruel, showed that Darius wasn’t seen in any way as a cripple but rather as an equal.

Documenting the trip in the mobile home showed how often simple amenities like a bathroom or store are often not wheelchair accessible. The young college students help Darius overcome every obstacle. In the end, Darius gets to the west coast and meets the cast of “Pimp My Ride.” The actual cast loved the idea, but the producers held fast and refused to upgrade Darius’s wheelchair. The boys had to return defeated. 7,000 mile road trip across the United States to promote awareness of the fatal disease Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and to raise money for research into a cure.

Back in their hometown, people had raised money and hired a local mechanic and craftsman to add custom features to a wheelchair. Flames were painted on its side, a state of the art audio system was worked into the chair. The alterations to the chair however weren’t as important as the alterations to the participants. When they started, the boys knew nothing about film making or fundraising. The film has won an incredible number of awards and the goal to raise awareness has become an unstoppable movement. The film celebrates life that should be embraced with open arms. No setback or disability can stop someone who truly wants to live.

All proceeds from the film go to ‘Charley’s Fund‘, named for DMD sufferer Charley Seckler, and set up as a non-profit foundation investing in scientific research to help cure DMD. The filmmakers had originally hoped the film might raise $70,000 for DMD research, but by March 2009 they had raised $1.5 million, and by June 2009 they had raised $2 million.