A group of local filmmakers have won a $50,000 grant from TELUS STORYHIVE to help fund an in-depth documentary about the Grande Cache Canadian Death Race.
Undefeated: Journey To The Death Race, is the story of not only how participants from across the province gear up for a life-changing race, but also the stories as to why.
Project Lead Wade Whibley says he was on his way to the west coast when the idea for the film presented itself.
“I came up with an idea on a 9-hour drive to BC. I was going through Grande Cache and they still had the podiums set up from last year. I kind of thought ‘what makes people want to run a marathon like that?”
The grant money will fully fund the project, including salaries for those working on set. Whibley says the funds will be put to very good use, especially when it comes to the technical side of film making.
“We want to be as diverse as possible, and we do have access to drones. The intent was we were hoping to do six teams, small teams, four teams of two, and two teams of three.”
He adds with the 2019 Deathrace happening in just a couple of weeks, they are too focused on the heavy lifting and haven’t given it much thought as to where they’d ideally like the movie to be shown on the festival circuit.
“TELUS has rights to it, so they have first dibs. After that, we will have to do some chatting amongst our group about where we want to take it from there.”
The TELUS STORYHIVE program started in 2013. It was created to help people living in Alberta and BC who were looking to enter the film industry or who wanted to further their careers.