Why Help the BOSTON Film?

RunSignUp has decided to support the making of the BOSTON Film with the help of our community of races, timers, clubs and stores. We are getting some encouraging early support from races like The Murfreesboro Half Marathon, which will have about 100 of their participants making a donation of $5 each (and RunSignUp will match).

We are also getting some questions, and we wanted to give our thoughts:

Why did RunSignUp decide to support BOSTON the Film?
Bob, Jordan, Johanna and Andrew attended the Road Runners Club of America meeting.

Jon Dunham, the director of Spirit of the Marathon, gave a presentation and showed the trailer (https://vimeo.com/120689532) to his new movie – BOSTON.  Bob had been a huge fan of the first movie (remember going to the Ritz Movie Theatre with all the running geeks in South Jersey), and of course had been very moved by the 2013 bombing.

We went up to him afterwards and had a long discussion(s) with him.  It turns out that his movies do not make any real money and therefor lack investors to get the thing actually made. The big sponsors like John Hancock and JetBlue and Adidas all want to support it, but they want someone else to be the first sponsor and don’t want to put too much money figuring their names will be splashed across the movie anyway since they sponsor the race. We decided that RunSignUp should donate $100K to become the first sponsor and that if we combined that with a program to engage our races we could double that – hence our announcement – https://runsignup.blog/2015/05/26/bostonfilm/.  We also created their website for them – http://bostonmarathonfilm.com/.

But this is a film and not a charity. Why should we support this?
Unfortunately this film will not see the box office that Avatar or Forrest Gump see. As with most independent films and documentaries, there is a need for support. This article about how films have raised over $100M on Kickstarter is a good background.

The film is a documentary and Laromafilms is a for profit organization owned by Jon Dunham.  As with most documentaries, they do not make much or any money.  The directors, producers, editors, camera people, etc. all expect to receive compensation for their work – hence the need for money.

The reality is that the running community needs to get behind this film, just like we got behind Boston after the bombing. It is our community that cares about this topic and will benefit from the story being told the right way.

Are these guys legitimate?
Yes.  You can see the credentials of the team here. Jon and Megan are award winning directors and producers. Deena Kastor, as an executive producer, ensures the running community is properly portrayed. Guy Morse, former Executive Director of the BAA, and Mark Nystuen, former Director of the Chicago Marathon when it was sponsored by LaSalle Bank lead the sponsorship efforts. They are also endorsed by the BAA to produce the first full lenght documentary film about the legendary Boston Marathon. You can see more information and news here.

How can the running community help?
There are many ways to help. RunSignUp race directors have some simple ways to contribute outlined here.

We also have specifically not done an exclusive sponsorship (although it was offered), and we have reached out to several registration companies to offer similar programs or create their own so more  runners can be reached.  There are a couple of other registration companies already in discussions with the film.

We are also working with the RRCA on coming up with a program for running clubs where they raise $2,500 via a Fundraising team on Crowdrise, and get a free viewing of the film when it is released for their club.

What will be in the movie?
It is a documentary about the history of the Boston Marathon, but focuses on the story of the 2013 bombing and the comeback of 2014. They have over 300 hours of film to edit of the 2014 race from over 50 cameras with never seen video of Meb’s stirring run through the crowds.

Please take a couple of minutes and watch the BOSTON trailer below:

BOSTON Film Trailer from Jon Dunham on Vimeo.