MARATHON MAN
‘Runner’ documentary offers story of hope, resilience
It’s been a proverbialmarathon rather than a sprint for “Runner.” The documentary about
Guor Mading Maker, a Sudanese Lost Boy turned Olympic athlete and U.S. Airman, came strong off the starting block last year. With director Bill Gallagher pushing, “Runner” ran the film festival circuit, scoring seven wins before Ferndale’s Muse Production House joined the team.
Serving as co- distributor, Muse brought the filminto a pandemicworld by launching Virtual Cinema for Good, a concept that used localized streaming presentations of “Runner” as fundraisers for socially conscious nonprofits inmore than100communities — including Freedom House Detroit this weekend today.
It’s certainly heightened the movie’s stature and visibility, which Muse’s Jenny Feterovich feels was well-deserved.
“It’s such an amazing story,” says Feterovich, a refugee herself. She fled the Soviet Union in 1989 and now resides in Bloomfield Hills.
With Muse, she produced last year’s acclaimed “The Russian Five” documentary about theDetroit RedWings, and also served as an executive producer for “CREEM: America’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll Magazine” and co-produces the PBS show “Start Up.”
“It’s a topic that’s very near and dear to my heart, obviously, seeing how (Maker) was embraced by a community and how he changed the perception of people towards him,” she says.
“One of my favorite things
about this is he doesn’t really win (as a runner). It’s not about winning. When youwatch a lot of other sport documentaries especially, someone ends upwinning. But in this, Guor doesn’t end up winning. It’s really just about his journey. It’s a great human story.”
Maker — also known as Guor Marial — and his family were among the millions oppressed during the Sudanese CivilWar of 1982-2005. More than two dozen members of his familywere killed during that time, including eight of his nine siblings, while others were enslaved.
Maker, however, escaped from a refugee camp when he was 9, fleeing — literally running — to Egypt and then traveling to the United States, where he was granted refugee status when he was 16 andadopted the surname Marial. “Runner” chronicles his assimilation into American society, his introduction to competitive running during high school in Concord, N.H., and becoming an All-American at Iowa State University.
Maker qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics Marathon in London, choosing to compete as an independent athlete rather than represent Sudan, as he was a permanent resident but not a citizen of theUnited States.
The following year he returned to Sudan and was reunited with his parents, who he did not know had survived thewar. He ran for South Sudan at the 2016 Olympics and has been training to represent the U.S. at the next Summer Olympics, slated for 2021 in Tokyo.
“‘Runner’ is about theabilityto hope and the capacity to thrive even after enduring the most oppressive circumstances,” director Gallagher, who started working on the film seven years ago, explains. “It’s about letting the pain of our past propel us into turning negative circumstances into something positive. Guor ... endured unimaginable suffering, yet he willed himself to become an Olympian and used that platform to help and inspire others.”
Muse’s challenge in distributing the film, of course, was a lack of physical screens to show itondue topandemic shutdowns. “We’ve really had to find a new way to do things and get these (projects) out there,” Feterovich says. “It’s a lot of hustle and grind.” But, she adds, the more targeted Virtual Cinema approach may have benefitted “Runner” more than a traditional theatrical release.
“We were really able to hit the spot and engage nonprofit organizations, marathons, running groups, small theatrical communities — directly,” Feterovich notes. “We could get to the heart of the target market and really get a community together around this. It was such a successful model.
“It’s worked great for us. Times are changing, so it’s really about ‘ How do you crack the code?’”
The Freedom House Detroit screening is the last planned Virtual Cinema stop for “Runner.” With Maker training for the 2021 Olympics at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Muse plans to bring it out again next year for another, er, run.
“We’re going to hold back after this last weekend, and then when we know a definite date for Tokyo, that’s when the film will resurface— probably in the digital space,” Feterovich says. “It’s a very classic, very moving story. It will still mean something next year, and for many years in the future.”