Above, from left: Eli Olsen, Kelsey Peterson, Daniel Klein, Jim LeBrecht.

We’re only a week away from our special screening of Kelsey Peterson’s documentary, Move Me! Spots are filling up. Don’t wait - get your tickets now.

I remember when Kelsey first got the idea to do a documentary dealing with spinal cord injury. It was right after she helped me and other advocates pass the landmark SCI/TBI Research Grant Bill here in Minnesota in 2015.

In 2017, I came on as U2FP’s Executive Director, and at my suggestion, our board embraced the bold move to back this film and its first-time filmmaker. 

U2FP acted as the sole fiscal sponsor, allowing donors to support Kelsey’s film by being able to contribute to her mission-aligned project through our non-profit. After a couple years, some major players saw what I saw in Kelsey and her journey: 

• she won highly-competitive funding from ITVS (only 7 applicants out of 300 were granted awards), which is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
   
• Jim LeBrecht, of Crip Camp fame, befriended Kelsey and agreed to do sound for the film

Kelsey has talked about how the scope and vision of her project changed over the 5 years it took to make this film. Like all artists, she evolved. When we screened it at our Annual Symposium a month ago, it was clear her story resonated with the audience. Especially the members of the SCI community there in the room who have seen these kinds of stories committed to film before. This was different. Better.

We want to share this beautiful film with you. See it on the big screen, and then join us for a live Q&A with Kelsey - which will also include SCI musician Freaque (aka Gabe Rodreick whose music and Cripples Dance production are featured in the film. Check out a recent interview Gabe did on MPR here.)

And we’ll have drinks and dessert to go along with the great conversation. Special thanks to Pryes and 56 Brewing for donating some delicious beer for this event!

So come out next Thursday, November 3rd at 7pm in the Tek Box Theater - Cowles Center for Dance & the Performing Arts.

Join us!