SCA Alumni Screening Series Presents: SPIRIT OF THE MARATHON

ABOUT SPIRIT OF THE MARATHON

Four years in the making, Spirit of the Marathon is the collaborative effort of three-time Academy Award winner Mark Jonathan Harris, Telly Award winner and marathon runner Jon Dunham and producer/marathoner Gwendolen Twist. Spirit of the Marathon is the first ever non-fiction feature film to capture the drama and essence of the famed 26.2 mile running event. Filmed on four continents, the movie brings together a diverse cast of amateur athletes and marathon luminaries.

As six unique stories unfold, each runner prepares for and ultimately faces the challenge of the Chicago Marathon. More than a sports movie, Spirit of the Marathon is an inspirational journey of perseverance and personal triumph; a spectacle that will be embraced by runners and non-runners alike. Filmed on four continents and in five countries, the film stars legends such as Dick Beardsley, Paula Radcliffe, Bill Rodgers, Toshihiko Seko and Grete Waitz.

Mark Jonathan Harris (Executive Producer) has made three Academy-Award winning documentary films: The Redwoods, a documentary made for the Sierra Club to help establish a redwood national park that won an Oscar for Best Short Documentary (1968); The Long Way Home, a film made for the Simon Wiesenthal Center about the period immediately following the Holocaust that won the Academy Award for Best Feature Length Documentary (1997); and Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport, produced for Warner Bros., that also won an Academy Award for Best Feature Length Documentary (2000).  Since 1983, he has taught filmmaking at the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, where he heads the documentary program.

Jon Dunham (Producer/Director/Cinematographer) has been a runner for over a decade, and has completed 21 marathons (including 3 in Chicago) and many other road races. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California's prestigious School of Cinematic Arts and has been the recipient of numerous awards including a 2002 Telly Award for No Distance Too Far, a film on the 600-mile California AIDS Ride. As a cinematographer, he has shot such films as Tell Me Cuba and the forthcoming Keepers of Memory: Stories of Hidden Children.

ABOUT CHECK-IN & RESERVATIONS

This screening is presented free of charge and is open to all USC students, faculty, staff and alumni. The theater will be OVERBOOKED to ensure capacity and the RSVP list will be honored on a first-come, first-serve basis, with no reserved seating. Please bring a photo ID or print out of your reservation confirmation, which will be automatically sent to your e-mail account upon successfully making an RSVP through this website. Check-in will begin at approximately 4:30PM.


The USC School of Cinematic Arts is located at 850 W. 34th St., Los Angeles, CA 90007. Parking passes are available for Parking Structure D and Lots M & V (across the street from the George Lucas Building) for $8.00. You must pull into Gate 5, located at the intersection of McClintock Ave. and W Jefferson Boulevard and purchase your parking pass with the booth attendant. Street parking is also available along W Jefferson Blvd.

To view the full schedule of films during the Alumni Screening Series, click here.