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The Film |
Izumi Tanaka In 1996, I was privileged to be a media member of the Atlanta Paralympic Games, a world-class Olympic competition limited to athletes with physical disabilities. My position as a field producer was to make a short documentary about the event for a Japanese network. “Another Atlanta” turned out to be the only substantial coverage of the event in Japan and received a sensational national response. It became a catalyst for all Japanese networks to cover subsequent Paralympic events, starting with 1998 in Nagano. Throughout the event in Atlanta I met many athletes who, despite their challenges, were competing at the very highest level possible for them. I was profoundly moved and inspired by being around this group and soon conceptualized a documentary program about them. Now I can share my awe-inspiring experience with the world. In 1999, I heard about a wheelchair race in Alaska called “Sadler’s Midnite Sun Ultra Challenge.” It is the world’s longest wheelchair competition, like a “Tour de France” for wheelchairs, in which they race a total of 267 miles for six days from Fairbanks to Anchorage, on a highway winding through the mountains, valleys and tundra of Alaska’s interior. Intrigued, I signed on as a volunteer and showed up with a small Hi-8 video camera. There I met James Lilly, one of the remarkable racers, who was a former gang member from Chicago paralyzed by gun shots, and I knew immediately that I had found my story. As I gradually built my relationship with him over the years since then, I discovered James’ personal journey closely paralleled my own. As the producer/director in the process of making this documentary, I too keep pushing myself forward to become all that I can – the filmmaker who makes a difference with her stories. |
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