Going the Distance Documentary Airs on Public Television Stations

Emmy-Award winning filmmaker and Bay Area resident, David L. Brown’s award-winning documentary, Going the Distance: Journeys of Recovery, will air on local public television stations KRCB and KQED this fall, and again in March of 2019 for Brain Injury Awareness Month. Inspired by TBI survivor and former ABC News Anchor Bob Woodruff, Going the Distance is an hour-long character-driven documentary in which four survivors take us inside the experience of traumatic brain injury (TBI) to reveal their personal stories of devastation, heroism and hope. The film was awarded Most Inspirational Film at its world premiere at the Oregon Documentary Film Festival in November of 2017. One of the four inspirational TBI survivors in the film, Kristen Collins, lives in Redwood City, CA. http://www.goingthedistance.info/

Going the Distance will air on KRCB (Channel 22) - Monday, December 17, 2018, 9 pm; and KQED (Channel 9) - Monday, January 7, 2019, 10 am.

About the Film:

Called "the Silent Epidemic," TBI impacts 2.5 million Americans and costs American society $60 billion every year. Going the Distance focuses an intimate lens on the daunting, inspiring journeys of the survivors as well as the people who love and care for them. The film’s profiles in courage include: Jason Poole, an African-American Iraq War vet nearly killed by a roadside bomb; Kristen Collins, a nurse who was badly injured in a motorcycle accident; Jay Waller, a Yale graduate who was the victim of a savage road-rage beating; and Ian McFarland, a six-year-old who survived the auto accident that made him an orphan.

For Jason, Jay, Kristen and Ian, Going the Distance involves both acceptance of an impaired new self as well as learning to adapt to the changed person they have become. Although the individual stories and circumstances are unique, the dilemmas they face are universal and profoundly human, impacting that part of ourselves, the brain, that informs who we are and governs our personality, thoughts, feelings and perceptions. An injury to the brain is an injury to the essential self, which is why Kristen explains that she and all TBI survivors “have to reinvent who they are.” Interweaving cinema vérité scenes, interviews, home movies and archival footage, Going the Distance explores the physical, emotional and economic challenges of traumatic brain injury and disability for these survivors as they reinvent themselves.

In spite of undeniable and enduring hardship, including life-long cognitive and emotional challenges, each protagonist has an inspiring recovery arc in regaining a significant measure of their pre-injury dream and envisioning a new life path. Woven with the compelling personal stories, the documentary also explores the urgency of this silent epidemic in which millions of TBI survivors do not receive the care and rehabilitation they need.

Going the Distance promises to be an inspiring and valuable addition to the media resources on TBI. Bob Woodruff - TBI survivor, former ABC News Anchor and the original inspiration behind the documentary - called it “the best documentary on TBI I’ve seen yet. It’s a great piece of work.”

David L. Brown Biography

David L. Brown is a three-time Emmy Award-winning San Francisco documentary filmmaker who has produced, written and directed over 80 productions and 16 broadcast documentaries on social, nuclear, environmental, health, engineering, technology, aging, peace and justice issues. His documentaries have received over 85 international awards, include three Emmy Awards, and have been broadcast on PBS and in sixteen countries.

Recent work includes: Keeper of the Beat: A Woman’s Journey into the Heart of Drumming, an hour-long documentary on the life and music of Barbara Borden, drummer extraordinaire, Runner Up for the Audience Award for Best Documentary, 2013 Mill Valley Film Festival; Running for Jim, a feature-length documentary on a legendary cross country coach who contracts ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). Best Documentary, Soho International Film Festival, Audience Award, Tiburon Film Festival; The Bridge So Far: A Suspense Story, a comedic 56-minute documentary on the troubled 16-year history of the new east span of the S.F.-Oakland Bay Bridge that received two Emmy Awards (Best Documentary and Best Graphics and Animation in a Program) and aired on national PBS; Of Wind and Waves: The Life of Woody Brown; an hour-long profile of legendary 94-year-old surfer, Woody Brown (Emmy nomination for Best Documentary, Inspiration Award at Mountainfilm in Telluride) that aired on national PBS; A Span in Time, a half-hour film on the Labor Day weekend closure of the S.F-Oakland Bay Bridge to replace a huge bridge segment (Emmy Award for Best Graphics and Animation, Emmy nomination for Best Documentary) that aired on national PBS; Amazing: The Rebuilding of the MacArthur Maze, a half-hour film on the fiery collapse and speedy rebuilding of Oakland’s MacArthr Maze (Emmy nomination for Best Graphics and Animation) that aired on national PBS; Seniors for Peace, a 26-minute portrait of a group of articulate and passionate senior peace activists (average age 85) which aired on national PBS; and Surfing for Life, an inspirational one hour documentary on older surfers as models of healthy aging. It screened theatrically in 40 cities, was broadcast on over 140 PBS stations, won 15 international awards (including the Golden Maile for Best Documentary and the Audience Award at the Hawai'i International Film Festival), and was profiled in The New York Times Magazine, Parade Magazine, on National Public Radio and ABC’s World News Tonight with Peter Jennings. The San Francisco Chronicle called it “a treasure, perhaps the most intelligent treatment of surfing ever captured on film.”

Brown produced several films on nuclear and environmental issues culminating in Bound by the Wind, a moving documentary on the global legacy of nuclear weapons testing and the plight of the world’s “downwinders.” It won 20 international awards and has been broadcast on PBS and in 14 countries. The Boston Globe called it “far and away the best film on the nuclear legacy.”

Since 1997, Brown has taught Documentary Filmmaking at City College of San Francisco. He has also taught at San Francisco Film Society, Film Arts Foundation, U.C. Berkeley Extension and Diablo Valley College. His web site is www.DLBfilms.com.

Going the Distance Credits

Produced, directed and photographed by David L. Brown

Edited by David L. Brown, Marta Wohl, Steven Baiger, Tal Skloot

Executive Producer: Rob Howard

Music by Steven Cravis, John Keltonic and Jaime Kibben

Colorist: Gary Coates; On-Line Editor: Jesse Spencer

Sound Design, Mix: Paul Zahnley, Disher Music & Sound

Still Photos: Robert Ochoa, Larry Bramble, Jason Poole, Cindy Collins, Melissa Coleman,

Jay Waller, Sydney Waller

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