THE BOSTON BULLDOGS, 96min., USA
Directed by Bryan Cote
“The Boston Bulldogs” is a 90-minute documentary film interviewing 5 people from a running club for addiction recovery, interconnected by one woman’s story from finishing the Boston Marathon after her first full year of sobriety to her relapse 24 hours later, and now her recovery 10 years later. The filmmakers follow Meaghan on a run at the site of her first day with the club in 2014, talk with her sister who saw her addiction at its worst and helped her to recovery, interview Meaghan and her husband Conan about their relationship, their hope for their kids, and Conan’s path, interview Ashley who talks about her low self-confidence on the way to addiction and recovery and how Meaghan saved her life, return to Meaghan and Ashley’s sober living house, and hear why the club formed from its founder. The film is intended to show people in recovery in a positive, hopeful light, providing guidance for those dealing with addiction now, their family and for youth and families dealing with the pressures that come from coming of age in the 2020s.

https://www.thebehavioralhealthhour.com/

Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film? I

'm a lifelong journalist and love to tell stories and wanted to work with my son on a project to marry our two interests - mine writing, his more broadcasting and film. This was an easy story to want to tell because addiction affects so many people worldwide and is misunderstood, and the running club is a great way to address addiction and recovery, particularly at a public health level but very much so at a local level. I wanted to try to tell this story in a different way than on paper...

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?

A full year - I did an initial visit to the club anonymously for a run, w/out really telling anyone. I ran, talked with some of the members and then after getting support from the club to do a documentary, we started doing interviews and some filming. Most of the work was weekend sessions my son and I did just editing down footage. It was like a puzzle. 3-4 hours of content and film footage, tried to boil it down. Took about 1 year where we felt good enough. Candidly we could have spent another year tweaking and tightening...

3. How would you describe your film in two words!?

Redemption Heals

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

Realizing that I had done the interviews for the film like I would any normal interview for a newspaper or magazine written story - which is good for written pieces, but not exactly for documentaries - so that made it harder to structure the film and edit and cut and put the pieces together in a way where I wasn't so front and center as the interviewer, and in a way that made it easy to follow. Had we taken more time we might have set up the filming and questionning somewhat differently I suppose but then again, I am new to this...telling a story through film is not easy but maybe there's not one uniform way to do it.

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?

Rewarding and validating. It was great to hear the reviewers mention things like the questions we asked and how the film impacted them. I also appreciated one of the reviewers acknowleding that the film is long - probably too long - which I get and I agree with candidly....I found it difficult to organize and package the content in a film compared to a written story. Much easier with words. Harder with images, video.

6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?

I've thought about documentary because a lot of my feature stories are of real people overcoming or interesting human interest stories but not until I realized my kid -- now 21 - had the chops to film, did I think I could do a film. And this story - maybe more than any I'd written about, had the wider appeal and potential to make an impact on educating many people, or at least showing people who've dealt with addiction or are in the throes of it with family or friends, that they are not alone, and that there's a way to get throught it.

7. What film have you seen the most in your life?

Probably a tie between The Natural, which had maybe the single greatest line in a movie when Redford's Hobbs asks the bat boy to "go pick me me out a winner Bobby" - it's a line that stands in time because you know Bobby will pick out the bat they carved together, because Hobbs is bleeding, and because we know the ending...we hope for it. Moonstruck is the other - maybe my favorite because this one just makes me laugh, reminds me of my family.

8. What other elements of the festival experience can we and other festivals implement to satisfy you and help you further your filmmaking career?

It's been amazing so far as a firstime filmmaker just trying to get exposure. Perhaps adding more information or guidance on how to get films that are winning awards shared on a broader scale and perhaps help directly get them eligible to be shown to movie companies or TV companies that want to offer films.

9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?

Rewarding and easy to do (and I'm not too smart with uploading or things like that). It was super easy and it's been nice to see how things stand w/ each festival we entered. It would help to understand more about process from getting selected to nominated to the potential to being shown at the actual event. It's sometimes not easy to discern which, if any of the festivals we've been selected for will actually show the film at a live event that we might attend.

10. What is your favorite meal?

A bowl of spinach, mozzarella cheese and a lot of Italian dressing.

11. What is next for you? A new film?

Yes - hopefully - thinking through a film to tell one of two stories, one related to a group of young women who came to the US as refugees and have made an incredible impact. But one thing at a time...

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