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“Our Race”: Community Inspiration
By Sherry Devanney
I started creating Our Race in film school. We had to make a five-minute final project.
My mother-in-law is seventy-three and an eighteen-year breast cancer survivor. She is so strong and active and, at the time, had just recently become involved with a group of breast cancer survivors who wanted to start a dragon boat team. I watched them once and I knew I had to do a documentary on them. They had a passion, a fire in their eyes. With everything they had gone through in their lives, it really grabbed me. It was nothing I had ever witnessed before.
After the five-minute documentary screened, I received an impressive amount of viewing requests, from universities to audience members. I found the ladies in the documentary so inspiring I knew I couldn't stop at a five-minute version. The documentary now spans five years of development and is forty minutes long.
Creating Our Race the documentary has actually brought the women on the team closer on a personal level. When they viewed some initial interviews in the early stages, several commented they hadn't realized what the other person was going through. Many teammates, formerly deemed quiet and shy, have a lot more fun and now openly talk about intimate issues.
When the five-minute trailer for this film was seen by an employee of the company "FDJ French Dressing," she immediately had to screen it for their head office; they were deeply moved and wanted to jump on board.
FDJ French Dressing is a clothing company committed to women's wellness, an advocate of breast cancer awareness and research. Our Race sparked FDJ to not only donate money to every Canadian breast cancer dragon boat team just starting and already established, but they took it upon themselves to organize the first-ever International Breast Cancer Dragon Boat Festival (French Dressing International Dragon Boats for the Cure).
Paddlers mostly from the United States and Canada now participate in this event. They raise a substantial amount of money to fight breast cancer, and the festival also provides the opportunity for breast cancer survivors to bring home money to their local cancer centers. Company president Len Miller says, "Dragon boat paddling provides tangible benefits to breast cancer patients and survivors, including emotional support and physical activity. It is an event that truly celebrates wellness for women."
Our Race was used by the local community to impress the Governor General of Canada by enlightening her about the Race on the River festival, the women and their touching determination. The film is now being requested by breast cancer survivors across the United States and Canada as they desire it to be a part of their dragon boat team start-up process. This documentary and the team of women in it do inspire other breast cancer survivors, but they have also motivated prostate cancer and Special Olympic teams and even the general public to pick up a paddle.
I'd say the hardest part about making this film was losing people on the team to cancer. As hard as it was, I feel honored to have given them a voice and to have been in their lives. Being with these women has, strangely, given me the strength to deal with the loss of my own mother.
When the documentary screened in New Glasgow for the women and their community, we raised a lot of money for the local food bank. For admission, some people even donated wigs and breast prostheses for local breast cancer survivors. The film screened to a packed theater with standing room only, with requests for another showing for people who couldn't make the first one. We received flowers and a standing ovation that I thought would never end. To feel the support of the whole community like that is very moving and something I will always remember.
A lot of positives came out of this project, more than I had anticipated. We really didn't have very much money to make the documentary, so I didn't know what to expect from an audience. The response has been nothing but positive to date and, honestly, sometimes overwhelming. The women on the team are very excited about all of the possibilities and new opportunities because of Our Race, and, well, so am I.
Please see http://www.ourrace.ca/ for an update on future screenings or to contact the filmmakers for more information.
For MPM's film review, click HERE. |
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