PRODUCTION SAN QUENTIN PRISON MARATHON
LOCKING IT IN The crew only had one shot at the race itself, and had to ensure that the pace and feel of the final cut kept the audience’s attention without detracting from the story
fingerprint on a lens deliberately to get it to bloom and hale in a certain place. It can give the image depth, but also serves the story. “When I first started out, I thought the lights always had to be, you know, three- quarter side and a 2:1 fill – but now I know none of that really matters,” he continues. “It’s really just about what serves the story and what looks good. In a film like this, you don’t want the attention to go to the cinematography. It’s a fine line: you want it to look really great because, if it doesn’t, attention wanes, but you don’t want the audience to be thinking about what an amazingly beautiful shot it is at the expense of taking them out of the story.” As well as sharing their stories on camera, the prisoners had creative input in the making of the documentary. When Covid-19 hit, making visits from the production crew impossible, Yoo enlisted the help of some of the incarcerated filmmakers in the prison’s media lab, who ended up shooting pickup shots seen in the final film. They also played a pivotal role in the sound design of the doc, with Antwan ‘Banks’ Williams creating a hip- hop-driven score written, produced and performed inside San Quentin. Released in 2019, Williams was eventually able to
properly collaborate with the filmmakers to finish his work, resulting in a blistering soundtrack that packs an emotional punch throughout. IN IT FOR THE LONG RUN Getting the film out to a mass audience was the next hurdle, and fortunately the project received a significant leg-up through a partnership with fitness brand Hoka, which underwrote the theatrical campaign. Since its release in the US, it’s enjoyed a warm critical reception, picking up awards on the festival circuit and even generating early Oscar buzz. Most remarkable of all is the real- world social impact that the film is having. The team has been inundated with requests from prisons and juvenile centres wishing to screen the film and get advice on starting running clubs. When we speak, Yoo informs me that at 4pm, 26.2 to Life is showing in 32 prisons to some 95,000 people that day, and that it was recently screened to 21 Parole Board commissioners in
California. There’s been a request from the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for a screening, too, which would put the documentary in front of prominent judges. The response has been so staggering that the team are working on evolving into a fully-fledged non-profit. “We are excited about the idea of introducing more running clubs because there’s a 0% recidivism rate among the members of the running club who get out,” Yoo explains. “The national average in the US is 67% after five years.” The goal is to bring the film to as many viewers as possible, especially those within the prison community, where they hope to be able to provide a handbook on setting up clubs and starter kits containing trainers and a clock. “I used to say, ‘we may not be able to change the system, but we can certainly change the world around us’, but what I’m seeing now – based on the reaction so far – is that I believe it is possible to change the system, too,” she concludes. 26.2 to Life is slated for streaming release in early 2024
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