Red Deer will stand in as Hollywood North on Sept. 19, when cast and crew from the film Change exit limousines at Galaxy Cinemas in Gasoline Alley and follow a red carpet inside.
Produced by Cabel McElderry, owner of One-to-1 Fitness, and directed by Drew Kenworthy, creative director at Shoelace Media, Change is a documentary about five Red Deer residents who have overcame various health challenges.
They include a former type 2 diabetic, a woman with osteoarthritis who avoided a double hip replacement, and another woman who overcame a weight problem. All tackled their issues through fitness and lifestyle changes, said McElderry.
The individuals in the documentary represent a microcosm of the world’s population, he added, many of whom suffer from health problems like obesity, joint pain, diabetes and other diseases. A solution often exists in the form of an improved lifestyle.
“We’re just trying to inspire other people,” said McElderry, describing how the experiences of the five characters in Change are intermixed with statistics about global health problems.
Kenworthy agreed.
“We wanted to make the documentary to promote awareness in the community and reward these individuals for their work by telling their story.”
About 10 months of work went into the 30-minute documentary, said McElderry, adding that the objective was not to promote One-to-1 Fitness.
“When you watch the film, in 30 minutes I think One-to-1 is mentioned twice.”
Instead, he said, his hope is to have a positive impact on the lives of thousands of people.
“We have a public mission to help inspire 10,000 people toward making a healthy physical change by 2015,” said McElderry. “We know we can’t train that many people, so we wanted to create something that might help to increase awareness on the positive effects of change and to inspire people to share their stories.”
The Sept. 19 premiere of Change is free to the public, with tickets available on Facebook at www.facebook.com/changethemovie. The presentation will be followed by a screening of Jobs, a film based on the life of Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc.
McElderry expects Change will later be available through other media.
“We’re actually negotiating with a couple of networks and some of the major YouTube networks to see if we can achieve broader distribution.
“With clients and colleagues in other markets across North America, I’m hoping this is a platform that we could perhaps replicate on a broader scale to inspire and help more people.”
hrichards@www.reddeeradvocate.com