Crank It Up! Challenging the White Rim

USA, 2007, 48 min
Directed and produced by Mark Wellman and Tom Day

Screening:
Thursday September 18, 6pm - 7:30pm
Peery’s Egyptian Theatre

This documentary features three paraplegics hand-pedaling specialized adapted mountain bikes on one of the most rugged and forbidding mountain bike trails in the world, The White Rim Trail in Canyonlands National Park, Utah. Although sharing a love of adventure and the outdoors, nothing but their commitment and determination to ride was certain. Warren Miller’s cinema photographer Tom Day documented this six-day, 106-mile epic adventure. Narrated by John Hockenberry, the film follows the emotionally charged trio as they pedal up the relentless trail scattered with loose rock, steep ledges, continuing switchbacks in dense sand, to the completion of their journey.

Director/Producer Mark Wellman

Mark Wellman is a nationally acclaimed author, filmmaker and motivational speaker. Despite being paralyzed in a mountain climbing accident, Mark has inspired millions to meet their problems head-on and reach for their full potential. A two-time Paralympian and former Yosemite Park Ranger, Mark's No Limits philosophy encourages individuals to adventure into new horizons; to go beyond the seeming unreachable. Mark, faced with seemingly insurmountable obstacles, persevered courage and determination to fulfill his passion for the outdoors. An accomplished wheelchair athlete, Mark is best known for the first historic paraplegic ascents of the sheer granite faces of El Capitan and Half Dome, in Yosemite National Park. His notoriety has been acclaimed on national television, by congressional commendation and meetings with two Presidents of the United States. The first paraplegic to sit-ski unassisted across the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, Mark has also carried the flaming torch up the 120-foot rope, shocked by thousands of spectators, and lit the cauldron for the opening of the Paralympic Games in Atlanta.