Terry Hitchcock was compelled to run. Tim VandeSteeg and Mark Castaldo were compelled to tell his story. It may sound simple, but the end result, the documentary “My Run,” is about how decent people are affected by cancer, how a single, widowed father wanted to raise awareness for families like his, and how most journeys don’t end up the way you think they will.
In 1984, Sue Hitchcock lost her battle with breast cancer, leaving behind husband Terry and three children. He and his family coped as best they could, as several million single parent households often do.
In 1996 at age 56, Terry, with high blood pressure and not exactly fitting the mold of a long distance runner, decided to undertake the equivalent of 75 marathons in 75 days, traveling from his home in St. Paul, Minnesota, to Atlanta for the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics. His goal was to raise awareness for the millions of single parents and families struggling with the changes that the loss of a parent brings.
For director and co-producer VandeSteeg, also a Minnesota native, Terry Hitchcock’s story appealed to him on multiple levels. With a filmmaking background covering everything from commercials to independent features, VandeSteeg wanted to do something that mixed sports and inspiration for his next project. He wasn’t necessarily looking to do a documentary, but something about Hitchcock’s story hooked him.
“I love movies like ‘Rocky,’” VandeSteeg said. “I wanted a film that was like a ‘Rocky.’ I love stories where people just get beaten down, I love that. And then they fight their way back, and someone told me about Terry and I met this guy and I was amazed. I connected with a lot of the stuff that he was about. I connected with the story because it was about some guy doing the impossible.”
Another reason he connected with Hitchcock’s story was his own upbringing. VandeSteeg was brought up in a single parent household, by his mother, and as he said, “back in the ’70s, when there weren't very many single parents, not like today.”
VandeSteeg met his producing partner Mark Castaldo almost by chance in an L.A. coffee shop. Castaldo, a veteran film producer with several credits to his name, also is a longtime judge for the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, one of the most prestigious competitions in the world. Castaldo was reading scripts at the coffee shop, which, he says more than half seriously, serves as an office for him and thousands of other independent filmmakers in Southern California.
“You know, you're in a coffee shop, and you overhear conversations. So we started chatting and he tells me about a couple of independent films he made, and he told me that he's got the rights to the story [Hitchcock’s] and it took off from there.”
Castaldo, too, had personal reasons to take on this project. He lost his mother to cancer, and has several family members who have either battled or are battling the disease. For him though, like VandeSteeg, the movie means more than any one thing.
“Whenever I introduce the movie at a festival, I say ‘this is not a running movie, this is not a single parent movie or cancer movie.' It encompasses all those things and really it’s a movie about life and things that we all are facing.”
That was nearly three and a half years ago. The two may have been newcomers to the documentary form, but certainly not to filmmaking. They did have to adjust to telling a story in a different way, to not be so dependent on regular visuals. After all, documentaries are most often told through first person interviews and static images.
They had both experienced the highs and lows over their careers, and were familiar with the obstacles of the independent filmmaker. And as any independent filmmaker will say, raising money for a project is probably the biggest challenge they face.
“Most documentaries, especially this one, came in phases,” Castaldo said. “We would be able to go get interviews and at times you're looking at your budget you say, ‘Can I go get b-roll, can you get this? I think money is always an obstacle in indie filmmaking, so you're constantly working towards raising your next set of funds.”
A stroke of luck for “My Run” came when Billy Bob Thornton agreed to not only narrate the film, but he also lent a song for the closing credits. VandeSteeg had a connection, through a friend who is a DP, to Thornton, and he wondered about whether he could ask that favor or not. Eventually, Thornton expressed interest in narrating the movie, and VandeSteeg likened the process of working with the actor/musician to the movie “Rock Star.”
“I met him, and I chatted with him, and we did this narration,” VandeSteeg said. “And I was so happy I had to tell him about this thing in ‘Rock Star.’ Remember in ‘Rock Star’ when Mark Wahlberg walks…into the recording studio and he does his thing, and at that moment he feels so powerful, so unstoppable, that this is what it’s all about? And I said, ‘that’s how I feel right now.’ And he just looked at me and said, ‘cool.’”
VandeSteeg said that Thornton was very down to earth, and the fact that the song he gave them for the closing credits was a re-recorded version of the Boxmasters song “Every King Wears a Crown,” was perhaps the best part of that experience because Thornton did it without VandeSteeg asking him. Thornton felt the original song didn’t quite fit, so he came back with a more laid back version.
“I would never say, Billy Bob, would you re-record this song, because I’m an indie filmmaker,” VandeSteeg said. “It makes you feel so special.”
During the production, both Castaldo and VandeSteeg realized that the project was unique; it was, after all, not just simply a movie, but the story of a man’s life, and how the death of his wife affected him and his family. There was certainly a feeling for the entire production team that they needed to get it right.
“I think there's some pressure on you because it's such a compelling, powerful, poignant story,” Castaldo said. “You want to get it right. We always consulted Terry about certain things that we want to do because there were certain things, when we were doing this movie, there were issues of his wife passing away, and how that’s going to be portrayed on screen.”
A particularly powerful moment in the film comes towards the end of the movie when a letter, written by Sue Hitchcock, is read aloud in a voiceover by associate producer Christine Redlin and accompanied by photos.
“That was very moving for Terry,” Castaldo said, “that was the first time he heard those words in many, many years.”
The film was completed in June of 2009 and had its world premiere in October at the Austin Film Festival. Hitchcock was on hand, and the film won an Audience Award, and for the second night, word of mouth about the film caused the organizers to add more seating to accommodate the growing crowd.
In December, “My Run” was accepted into the Mammoth Film Festival, where it won Best Documentary. In February of this year, the film was showcased at the Sedona International Film Festival and two screenings kicked off the marathon weekend in town earlier in the month. Hitchcock, now 71, even walked for a while in the race alongside the mayor of Sedona.
Up next is the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival in April, and then, ironically, the Atlanta Film Festival, following the route that Terry Hitchcock took. Eventually they’ll take the film to the west coast and the Newport Beach Film Festival. The movie usually generates a positive, often emotional response from audiences, and the filmmakers witness it first hand with question and answer sessions after screenings.
“The gratifying thing is when you're able to be involved with a story like this that touches so many people, in the reactions of the crowds of people,” Castaldo said. “When we show the movie, we will try to get groups of single parents, or cancer survivors, and at the end of the film of these people come up to you and you see in their eyes how much they're moved.”
There are plans of turning “My Run” into a feature film. The script has been recently completed, and Castaldo said the movie could be along the lines of “The Blind Side” or “The Rookie.” But both are focused on the documentary and taking it as far as it can go. And whatever projects they may work on in the future, there’s no doubt that the last three and half years have had an impact on both of them.
“There is a good analogy with this film,” Castaldo said. “It is a marathon, not a sprint. This business is like a marathon, and yet you have to find a way to be able to continue on, find a way to tell the stories that you want to tell.”
