 |
a journey from disabled to enabled Story || Animations || Awards || Premiere |
It was 10:30 in the morning on a Tijuana highway when John Davis's life changed. The year was 1989. Davis was heading north from a surf vacation in Baja when a car crash stopped his progress. In the crash, his 12th thoracic vertebrae was crushed. Bone fragments pierced his spinal cord and paralyzed his legs. He would never walk again. John Davis was 19 years old. While he lay paralyzed in the hospital Davis began to accept the fate that had befallen him and he looked for ways to continue participating in an active life. Before the accident Davis was an athlete and after the accident he was still an athlete. At the hospital he found out about a guy named John Castellano, an MIT graduate who designs off-road wheelchairs that allow people to move around in an unpaved environment. Davis called Castellano to try out one of his chairs; thus began Davis's new life.
"Right from the start I knew John Castellano was truly a super-creative and super-terrific human being. I took the chair to an outdoor moto-cross race near Sacramento, called Hangtown, and I was instantly inspired by the reactions of the crowd. I was no longer in a chair; I was in an enabling vehicle".
Davis is now the subject of a documentary film written, directed, and produced by Christian Schneider, a filmmaker who has been documenting action sports for 10 years. Schneider first saw Davis when he was filming the Kamikaze Downhill Mountain Bike Race at Mammoth Mountain, California; he watched Davis go by through the lens of his camera. Schneider had expected a racer on a bike and the image of Davis in a wheelchair made a lasting impression.
By 1991 John Davis was traveling to mountain bike races and riding the downhill courses in his own off road wheelchair that had been designed and built by Castellano. He was often the forerunner to the professional race, being the first to go down and test the course before the racers went off. In the years since that first race when Schneider met John Davis they have run into each other at various sporting events and their conversations served to build the story line of a documentary film about Davis and his accomplishments. In January of 1996 the idea became a reality when Schneider began filming Davis in downhill ski racing competitions. Since then the two have been working together to make the film a reality. Schneider has amassed hours of beautiful 16 millimeter film footage and logged interviews with Davis, other disabled athletes, their coaches, John Castellano and people who have been close to Davis throughout his life. The end result is a 30 minute documentary that celebrates the potential of life. Schneider stays away from depicting horror, tragedy and suffering. His view is positive and uplifting.
In December of 1996 Schneider's film, The Chariot Races, will première at ITT Hartford's Ski Spectacular Celebration in Brekenridge, Colorado. In the year that he has spent documenting John Davis's life and exploits, Schneider has been challenged to redefine the term disabled. In the process of putting this film together he used select footage to create a public service announcement for ITT Hartford, for which the filmmaker won an award at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics World Congress Film Festival.
Schneider comments, "Spending time with John over the past year has taught me a lot about being patient, about being generous, about not being self-centered, about being a good friend and about being humble... I've learned a lot of things from him... I've learned a lot about myself. I've also learned that once you get beyond the usual stereotypes associated with disabled people, there really is not that much that is different; they are every bit as human as anyone else is."
Davis now resides in Vail, Colorado, with his sights set on the 1998 Winter Paralympics. He is a member of the US Ski Team and he hopes to reclaim his title as #1 in the world with another Paralympic gold medal, after winning gold at the Paralympics in Lillehammer, Norway. Davis is also working to create a recognized racing class for wheelchair athletes in conjunction with the NORBA mountain bike race series here in the United States. With his wife Anne, Davis lives a very full and active life, always striving to broaden the boundaries of his limitations.
"Suffering does make you stronger if you are open and honest with yourself. If you try to lie to yourself and blame others for your situation you will go into a self destruct mode. I feel that is why I have been so successful; I realized the hand I was dealt early on and I used every tool possible to be the best disabled person-- the best person--that I can be."
