A Canada Film Days' Selection. Winner: Best Documentary Feature, 2016 Canadian Screen Awards; Platform Prize, TIFF 2015
Three decades ago, Steve Fonyo, an 18-year-old who'd lost a leg to cancer, became both a national hero and the youngest recipient of the Order of Canada when he ran across the country to raise funds for research. His life since has been no fairy tale. Substance abuse, jail time, and the government's decision to strip him of his Order of Canada left Fonyo publicly disgraced and forgotten. (The only attendee at an anniversary celebration of his epochal run was the cop who busted him.) Yet he soldiers on, eventually giving us glimpses of the teenager who had the perseverance to complete such a feat back in 1985. Though Fonyo's story is transfixing, it is director Alan Zweig's empathy and wit that lift this documentary to the level of contemporary classics like Crumb. Zweig (When Jews Were Funny) shows us a Canada seldom seen onscreen — and rarely with such impact. —Steve Gravestock, TIFF