Once Upon a Time in the Vest

Monday, March 31, 2014

Vol. 4 No. 23 Your Chance to Honor the 60th Anniversary of the 4 Minute Mile

Bannister
Everest on the Track
 

It is not customary that we promote fundraisers, but this one came across the desk recently, and we have decided to throw  our support toward two young filmmakers who are putting the finishing touches on a documentary about Roger Bannister's four minute mile.  This story has been written of   often, and even a full length film has been made about it.  However  Jeremy Mosher and Tom Ratcliffe have found some new elements to the story and created a fresh approach to telling the tale.   They have all but completed their work and are seeking funds (approximately $12,500) to finish the final product.  Through  'Kickstarter' they are hoping to get the funding to complete the project in time to put it on the market on May 6, 2014, the anniversary date of Bannister's monumental run.   The film includes interviews with Sir Roger,  the late Sir Christopher Chataway, Steve Cram, Sebastian Coe, Dave Moorcroft, Dave Bedford, Paul Butcher, George Gandy, David Epstein, Peter Elliott, and others. 

You can do an online pledge and pay through Kickstarter by following the link below.  There is also a preview of the film on the link, which will put your nerves on end ready to run with these young men.  

Good luck with your project, Jeremy Mosher and Tom Ratcliffe


Here is a link to their campaign:



You may wonder how this appeal came to us.   Jeremy grew up in the same neighborhood as a friend Bill Schnier, longtime track coach at the University of Cincinnati.  Bill connected Jeremy to our blog hopefully to get added research material for the film project.  For the uninitiated,  Kickstarter, is a capital raising online service for small entrepreneurs and projects such as this film. 

This  is Jeremy's letter to us:


Hi George,

I wanted to send you a quick update about the Roger Bannister documentary I had e-mailed with you about a month or two ago. We're about to move into the final phase of "post-production" and we're launching a Kickstarter campaign with three goals:

1) Connect with a community of people interested in this story.
2) Raise funds for a professional audio mixing specialist and color specialist to make the project broadcast-worthy.
3) Rally strong grassroots support to show potential broadcast outlets that this is a story that many people want to see.

Anyway, I thought you and your readers may be interested in the campaign, as it will give supporters the chance to receive rewards for pledging their support. Some of the "perks" include a DVD of the finished film including deleted scenes... a screenprint of the movie's poster... even a handmade "AAA" jersey that we commissioned for the film. (To bring the race to life, we shot footage of runners in those jerseys and 1940'/1950's-era leather track spikes on a cinder track.)
 

On that page there is a video that has myself and my co-producer introducing a trailer for the film, with a little back-story on the project. If you'd like, I'd be happy to send over any other materials you might find useful for your website. I have production photos, as well as our interview list, which includes Bannister, Landy, Chataway, Ibbotson, Coe, Cram, and more.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Best regards,
Jeremy

Here is a bio of Jeremy and Tom's film company  Kimbia Athletics

KIMbia Athletics
TOM RATCLIFFE has spent his professional life immersed in world-class athletics, first as a marathoner, then at Nike, and currently as an agent and the director of KIMbia Athletics. As a producer, he oversaw documentary multimedia series that have been critically-recognized by NPR, Runner’s World, Blip.TV, and the Webby Awards. In 2012, he produced "The British Miler," a 12-episode documentary mini-series, that aired on Sky Sports and NBCOlympics.com, with supplemental content published on-line by The Telegraph.

JEREMY MOSHER first learned documentary filmmaking while working under George T. Nierenberg, director of the critically-acclaimed, "Say Amen, Somebody." Mosher soon began producing the bi-weekly sports-profile show, "The Game 365," on Fox Sports NY, in addition to creating content for the New York Rangers and Madison Square Garden, and assisting on programs for NatGeo (The Adventurist) and feature-length documentary entries in The North Face Series. As the director of "The British Miler" in 2012, Jeremy led a program that shot on four continents and in eight different countries, and yielded six hours of documentary content that aired in prime time on Sky Sports 3.

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