Filmmaker Meets First Goal

The documentary filmmaker who is seeking to tell Guor Marial’s life story, including his attempt to get into the 2016 Olympics, has reached his Kickstarter fundraising goal of $12,000 and is now shooting for more.

Bill Gallagher, who has worked on films such “If a Tree Falls,” which was nominated for an Academy Award, believes he has an inspirational story to tell and is hoping to reach the “stretch goal” of $26,000, in order to send a film crew to record Marial’s return to the South Sudan.

Currently, as of April 9, “Runner Without A Country” has raised $12,860 through Kickstarter, an online fundraising site, with about another week to go.

Gallagher said he was floored by Marial’s story and knew he had to take it on as a project.

Marial was a "lost boy," who had many of his family killed during the Sudanese Civil War. Marial came to the United States and spent a number of years in Concord, attending Concord High School, before heading off to college at Iowa State.

“I was reading the story (of Marial) and I just sort of couldn’t believe it,” Gallagher said. “It’s hard enough to be successful. But for Guor to have gone through what he’s gone through, realizing this dream of being in the Olympics, it’s an incredible accomplishment.”

Gallagher said just the story of his life and getting to the point of being able to run in the 2012 Olympics was a good one to tell. But he added, the story doesn’t end there. There’s a backstory too, he said, that hasn’t really been covered and that’s the “icing on the cake … a great opportunity for the people of the United States that haven’t learned about his country.”

This is Gallagher’s first attempt at directing having worked on other projects including working with the BBC and PBS. Prior to those projects, he went to graduate school for documentary filmmaking, and said he enjoys “beautiful, moving pictures,” and “getting to learn about something that you think is important.”

Gallagher said a lot of Marial’s story, so far, has been about being an American citizen, with a lot of the local press focusing on the narrative of what it means to be an American for Marial. He said Marial thinks it’s a great honor to be here. But while digging deeper, it's about being safe, he said. Also, being a citizen now means that Marial can get a passport and return to the Sudan to see his parents again, who survived the Civil War. And Gallagher plans on going with him to film the entire experience.

“(Marial) hopes to go in the next couple of months,” he said. “It will be a very special moment … 20 years not being home … I can’t even imagine that.”

Gallagher said that Marial also wants to meet with government officials there in an effort to get the country to join the sporting community. Ideally, Gallagher said, Marial would like to run for South Sudan in the 2016 Olympics.

“They are worried about infrastructure and feeding people but it will be top on his list to talk to the government there (in an effort) to represent them on the world stage,” he said.

Gallagher said he has “been blown away” but all the support for the film, coming mostly from small donations. The bulk of the donations, he said, had come in from Concord, and Worcester, Mass., where he was born and raised. He’s currently living in Pamplona, Spain.

The film is in the early stages of production right now and he hopes to wrap up filming by the end of the year and be done by the end of 2014. From there, “Runner Without A Country” will be entered into film festivals in the early part of 2014.

“The dream is that it will get distribution so it is in the theatres,” Gallagher said.

To make a donation, visit the film’s Kickstarter site.