Subjects: Physical and Mental Health, American Studies
When a criminal court judge starts a running club on LA’s notorious skid row and begins training a motley group of addicts and criminals to run marathons, lives begin to change.
SKID ROW MARATHON follows four runners as they rise from the mean streets of LA to run marathons around the world, fighting the pull of homelessness and addiction at every turn.
Their story is one of hope, friendship, and dignity.
Best Documentary Feature at the 2017 Napa Valley Film Festival and the Audience Award Winner for Best Documentary at Palm Springs International Film Festival 2018
“Highly motivational… Illustrates how rehabilitation can be fostered in the most unlikely ways.” – Hollywood Reporter
“It’s a brilliant piece of documentary cinema.”– Michael Moore, Academy Award Winner
“It’s a beautiful, inspiring documentary with lessons on how we can all be better humans.” – Film Festival Today
About the filmmaker
Mark studied documentary filmmaking at New York University under renowned documentarian George Stoney. He traveled extensively through East Germany during the period leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall. During that time, he picked up his future wife (and Producer Gabriele Hayes) hitchhiking. They were married but were not permitted to leave East Germany until the fall of the wall in 1989.
Over the years, he has directed several documentaries related to the Cold War, which have aired on public television in the US, Europe and Australia.
His recent projects include From Red State to Golden State (2013), and One Germany, the Other Side of the Wall (2011).