With a grant deadline on the horizon and a music career as the only option, The Long Run follows a determined, small-town Canadian band on their road towards making it big. See below to read more about the story & process... About a year ago, I reached out to a band called The Wilderness. In short, it went a little along the lines of “hey guys, I know you don’t know me, but I know you and I would really love to do a documentary on your band for my thesis project.” In just a few minutes, I got a response.
They were in.
I met them for the first time that week. The week following that, I drove down to a recording studio in Ottawa to begin filming. At the time, I had no idea that this project I took on, working with these boys, would be one that would push me to grow in a way that I didn’t even know were possible.
It’s taken me months to grow the courage to share this with the world; 9 months, to be exact. When I had first completed this film, a film that I had spent just a few months short of a year filming, I was on a total high of feeling accomplished and proud of what I had created. I cried for a good hour as I exited the editing suite that I had spent countless hours (and had even occasionally slept in) throughout my fourth year of university, proud of what I have achieved and sad to be closing that chapter of my life.
In the months following, this feeling of accomplishment rapidly changed. I began to feel distant from it. I resented it for all the things that I could no longer change, and there came a point where I decided I would not be sharing it at all.
After some self-reflection, I decided it would be completely ignorant and unfair to disregard a chapter that was, and still is, an incredibly important part of my life.
So, to Jonas, Sacha, Karl, Liam, Henry, Nick and Jon, thank you. Thank you for your patience as I navigated through my first real stab at film-making. Thank you for having faith in me, and most of all, thank you for welcoming me into your world and for allowing me to explore it and find my very own place in it - you have done more for me than you could ever know. I love you all dearly.
In a time when I was feeling low, uninspired, and unsatisfied in both life and with my university routine, this project proved to be an out. A way to break free from the habits I had become accustomed to and had grown to be oh-so-comfortable with. This project showed me that I didn’t have to live my life one way or another. I could follow a band around for a year. I could fall in love with new people and places. I could make friendships with strangers, and above all, I could choose to do whatever the hell I wanted. Here’s what happened when I did...
0 Comments