Back in November, Kurt Miller, son of ski-film pioneer Warren Miller, screened his film “The Movement” at the Egyptian Theatre.
It was the Park City premiere of the film that chronicled Universal Pictures executive Rick Finkelstein’s journey from wheelchair to Aspen Mountain for a ski trip.
Prior to a paralyzing accident in 2004, Finkelstien was an avid skier, who would sometimes hit the slopes between 50 to 100 days a year.
The film not only documented Finkelstein’s return to the slopes, but also spotlighted athlete Jim Martinson, who lost his legs in a landmine explosion while serving in the Vietnam War, Parkite and Paralympic skier Chris Waddell and Mike May, who set the speed record for blind skiers.
The 40-minute inspirational film has returned to Park City for the Sundance Film Festival and is screening with James Redford’s documentary premiere, “The D Word: Understanding Dyslexia.”
Miller is first to say “The Movement” is not a ski film, but a way to inspire people to become heroes.
“A hero is anyone who is disabled who gets their life back,” Miller said during an interview with The Park Record. “We want to help people become a hero and this film is a vehicle for people to do just that.”
The idea of the film stemmed from the fact that Miller felt it was important to inform people that there is a need to help people with disabilities.
“The best way to build a brand or raise awareness is through entertainment,” Miller said. “Film and TV, to me, is the best way to reach the largest number of people.”
“The Movement” also created a way for Miller to establish the Make a Hero Foundation, a nonprofit organization that raises money for various groups that support the disabled throughout the country.
“For example, the National Ability Center here in Park City is amazing and they do a fantastic job getting people with disabilities doing what they loved before they became disabled, but not a lot of people are going to put the NAC on TV. So, the Make Hero Foundation gives me a platform and a way to raise awareness for the NAC.”
When a person sees the film they may be inspired to donate to various organizations through the Make a Hero website, www.makeahero.org .
More importantly, Miller said, was the donations go directly to the organizations of the donors’ choices.
“On the website, we have all these different places that people can donate to, and we track every penny,” he said. “If a person donates to the NAC, we make sure it goes to the NAC.
“Also, if a person texts the word Hero to 80077, we track through the mobile number and ask for a zip code so the money funnels back to the local group that is in the zip code area,” Miller said.
Then, to show the people where their money is going, Miller and his crew will document another person getting back on skis or another activity and make another short film that will be posted on the Internet, network and cable TV, and screened at film festivals.
“We don’t give people ski lessons,” he said. “We give the money to people who do those things and we document them in the process through film.”
Miller knows there are people who don’t ski, so they are open to other activities, such as scuba diving.
He is working with Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of the late marine biologist Jacques Cousteau, on another project.
“We’re going to be doing more films with bowling, billiards and darts,” he said. “It’s all about these people taking back control all that was lost when they got injured.
Our goal is to get people out so they can get that confidence back.
At the moment, Miller’s crew is working with Jessie Murphy, a double amputee who served in Afghanistan.
“We flew Jessie into Park City to teach him how to ski,” Miller said. “We’ll have a five-minute Facebook program that will go out all over the Internet that will allow us to get our message out to hundreds of thousands of people.”
Not only has “The Movement” raised awareness of the Make a Hero Foundation, but also changed perceptions about how people see those with disabilities.
“You know, we complain we have to go to work early in the morning or we get bad grades, but then here we are talking to an Afghanistan War vet, who got injured when he was 22, and has undergone 56 surgeries and is a double amputee above his knees,” Miller said. “Already, he is cutting turns on the hill and sharing something with friends he wasn’t able to share after the tragedy.
“It’s like when we showed Rick getting back on the mountain,” Miller said. “He got the freedom back that he lost when he was injured and we changed his life forever.
Many of his friends and families have called me to say he is becoming the person he was before he got injured.”
To date, “The Movement” film has been accepted in the Boulder and Cinequest film festivals as well as the Nashville Film Festival.
“We started a movement and getting the film in these other festivals is part of the momentum of what we’re doing,” he said.
“The Movement” is screening with the Sundance Film Festival’ Documentary Premiere, “The D Word: Understanding Dyslexia” and screens:
Wednesday, Jan. 25, 4 p.m., Redstone Cinema, PC
Thursday, Jan. 26, 6 p.m., Salt Lake City Library, SLC
Saturday, Jan. 28, 9:30 p.m., Temple Theatre, PC