User:Tonyreedcpa/sandbox

Breaking Three Hours: Trailblazing African American Women Marathoners is a 2022 feature length documentary film directed and written by Anthony Renard Reed. Nine USA-born, African American marathoners, who were inducted into the National Black Distance Running Hall of Fame, are interviewed for this movie. Since 1975, about 14 million people finished marathons in the USA. About two percent or 280,000 finished marathons in under three hours. Fewer than twenty of these sub-three-hour marathoners were African American women who were born in the USA. At the 1975 Boston Marathon, Marilyn Bevans became the first African American woman to run a sub-three-hour marathon. The other interviewees are


 * Alisa Harvey
 * Ella Willis-Glaze
 * Ingrid Eugenia Walters
 * Marilyn Bevans
 * Michele Bush-Cuke
 * Michele Tiff-Hill
 * Samia Akbar
 * Shawanna White
 * Sika Henry

The chief videographer and editor was Kayla Key, who also was the voiceover for each of interviewee introductions. Bridgette L. Collins was the voice of Harriet Tubman and Nita Peters McKeethen was the trailer voiceover. The documentary and shorts received various awards at 2022 film festivals, including


 * Seattle Film Festival - Best Sports Documentary Feature Film and Best Original Song for a Feature Film.
 * The NewsFest True Stories International Film and Writers’ Festival - Best Music, Best News Story/Public Information, and Best Short Documentary Under 13 Minutes.
 * WRPN Women's International Film Festival - Exceptional Merit Award
 * New York Independent Cinema Awards - Award Nominee

It received official selections at the Toronto International Women's Film Festival, Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival, San Antonio Black International Film Festival, Visions of the Black Experience, and the

Minute Madness Toronto Film Festival.

Documentary Sections
The documentary is divided into four major sections. The first section opens up by focusing on the relationships between Harriet Tubman, slaves running for freedom, and the National Black Marathoners Association’s 1865 “Free to Run” logo. Next, it defines the marathon distance of 26 miles, 385 yards as running 105 laps around a quarter-mile track. To run a marathon in under three hours, each lap must be faster than one-minute, forty-three seconds.

The second section consists of introducing each woman’s accomplishments and individual interviews. The third section focuses on the collective challenges which the runners faced, such as racism, sexism, work-life balance, religion, crashes, breast cancer, and body shaming. The last segment brings to Marilyn Bevans’ return to the 2022 Boston Marathon, where she was an official starter. Graci Gonzales, an up and coming nationally ranked, six-year-old and under distance runner, is introduced. The documentary closes with a music video for (Welcome to the) Marathon by Dallas-area rapper, Solo Texas.

Production
Filming for the interviews and introductions took place between August 15 and 29, 2021 in Tuscon AZ, Boston MA, Detroit MI, Baltimore MD, and Alexandria VA. Youth from the Boston Lion Track Club, MetroCobras Track Club, and Boston United Track Club. The chief videographer and editor was Kayla Key. The closing scenes, which featured Marilyn Bevans, were recorded by Anthony Reed at the 2022 Boston Marathon.