The Independent on Run for Your Life

For Inspiration, Judd Ehrlich Looked to the Subject of His New Film, Run for Your Life: A look at the crowd-pleasing Fred Lebow biography that premiered at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival

While vampires made a big splash at this year's Tribeca Film Festival, a documentary about a son of Transylvania carved out a decidedly different niche for itself. Judd Ehrlich's heart-warming documentary Run for Your Life tells the story of Fred Lebow, the founder of the New York City Marathon, and the New York City Road Runners Club, one of the preeminent runners' organizations in the world. The doc has a lot going for it: great archival footage, a cool soundtrack, a large and fascinating supporting cast of talking heads, and at the center of it all, a main character who can't run well, yet makes marathoning his life's passion. Lebow is in many ways a dream subject: he beds women, garners celebrity, copes with scandal, invents sports marketing, wrestles with the demons of his past in war-torn Europe, and lives a life of such color and comedy that it could fill several films and a few books on the side. But faced with a bounty of material, filmmaker Judd Ehrlich had to make some tough choices. He talks about the film and its reception at Tribeca with The Independent's Mike Hofman.

Runner's World on Bill, Grete & Fred

Fred, Bill, Grete, the New York City Marathon, and a movie that tells all their stories by Amby Burfoot

I thought about Fred on Monday at a New York Road Runners luncheon that kicked off the organization's celebration of its 50th anniversary. Two of the New York City Marathon's greatest champions, Bill Rodgers and Grete Waitz, were invited to the lunch. That evening, we all attended a special screening of "Run For Your Life," a feature-length documentary movie about Fred and the Marathon. It's a quintessential and easy story to tell: Eastern European immigrant makes good in the big city, finds his passion (running in Fred's case), and combines his chutzpah and unflagging energy to turn that passion into a worldwide phenomenon.

I say "easy to tell" only to emphasize that this doesn't make it easy to film. That Judd Ehrlich's movie, "Run For Your Life", succeeds so spectacularly is a tribute to Ehrlich's own artistry, passion, and of course ... his chutzpah.

That evening, about 500 of us sat eagerly in our seats, waiting for the film to begin--Bill Rodgers, Mary Wittenberg, Kathrine Switzer, Bob Glover, Fred's sister Sarah, his nephew Moshe. But Grete Waitz wasn't one of us. She came to say hello and to greet friends before the movie started. But when the theater grew dark, she stood quietly and walked out.

Grete had told us earlier that she would do this. She is battling cancer herself--she looks and sounds great is about all I know, and all I can tell you--and she said she was worried that the movie would prove too emotional for her. This was probably a good decision. When the lights came back up 90 minutes later, there was scarcely a dry eye in the house.

Run for Your Blog

Drew Toal for Time Out New York
"3 out of 4 Stars. memorable... the can-do immigrant spirit that made this country great."
Watchdog Neil Best for Newsday
"interesting... emotional."
Scott Kasta for Movie Jungle
"surprisingly touching... fascinating... compelling."
Road to New York
"10 out of 10. The greatest biographical documentary I have ever seen... top notch... incredible... funny... touching... great filmmaking."
Sportsbiztech
"by the end, you’ll be cheering for Lebow."
Pigtails Flying
"marvelous and rich."
Run Dangerously
"fun and insightful... go see this movie!"
Sports and Shorts
"sports doc at its best... inspirational... highly recommended."
Maine Running Forum
"as intense of a movie moment I've ever experienced."
Running Chronicles
"truly inspirational... I recommend this film to everyone... people from all walks of life will be amazed."
La Bibliofille
"tells a powerful and moving story... Ehrlich brings a very personal touch."
Trakmaniak
"amazing... impressive and heart-warming... uplifting."
Filmicability with Dean Treadway
"Run For Your Life does what all fine docs do: it recounts a story we've never heard, but which has massive historical implications. It gives us a main character worthy of our attention. It has a complex structure that doesn't follow events as they happened in a timeline, but as they relate to one another. And it inventively illustrates its story with perceptive interviews, archive footage that's well-edited, and stunning graphic work. I also have to mention its incredible source-music soundtrack of past hit songs and present-day songs that should be hits. I've never been a runner--I'm too busy watching movies, so I've always found its appeal a bit mystifying--but now after seeing the inspiring Run For Your Life, I think I know what its point is."

IFC News: New York Characters

Caddy Audience Choice Award

Out of nearly 130 feature films at this year's festival, Run for Your Life is now in 6th place for the $25,000 Cadillac Audience Choice Award. Thanks to all the audience members who voted.

Today's Standings for The Cadillac Award
1. Pray the Devil Back to Hell
2. War Child
3. Gotta Dance
4. Playing for Change: Peace Through Music
5. Man on Wire
6. Run for Your Life
7. Under Our Skin
8. Kicking It
9. The Wackness
10. Fighter

"this year's most popular NY crowd-pleaser!"

NY1 News - Tribeca Film Festival: Documentary Looks at Legend of NYC Marathon Founder

Variety - Run for Your Life
Emmy-nominated director Judd Ehrlich ("Mayor of the West Side") dishes up another character-driven Gotham docu with the story of Fred Lebow, shrewd mastermind of the New York City Marathon, who essentially ran running in the metropolis from late 1960s until his death in 1994. Genially told through interviews, archival footage, and photos, the history of this unlikely fitness maven from Transylvania forms part of a larger tale about the upturn in fortunes of his adopted city. Sure to be popular on home turf, pic should sprint through other fests before finding a second wind on cable and DVD.

The New York Sun - At Tribeca, Tales of City Top the Bill
In the end, however, Judd Ehrlich's "Run for Your Life" (Thurs., Fri., Sat.) might be this year's most popular New York crowd-pleaser. An intimate profile of the eccentric, endlessly optimistic, and defiantly unstoppable Fred Lebow, who founded the New York City Marathon, "Run for Your Life" evokes the day-to-day sense of community that unites New Yorkers. When Mr. Lebow founded the marathon in 1970, 27 runners paid the $1 entry fee to participate in a race that made several loops around Central Park. Thirty-six years later, 93,000 people applied to run in the race that now takes in all five boroughs.

Mr. Ehrlich has rescued archival footage depicting some of the earliest runners as they cut across the vast Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and trek into Queens, where organizers originally feared no crowds would turn out. This is the city at its very best: Strangers run next to strangers, winding through neighborhoods they wouldn't otherwise see, cheered on by people they would never otherwise meet.

Sunday's Daily News

Daily News - Tribeca Documentaries Deliver a Dose of Drama
Marathon Man

The New York City Marathon has grown from a small event in Central Park involving a few hundred people in 1970 into a citywide extravaganza that attracts top runners from all over the world as well as casual athletes looking to conquer their own personal Everest.

The main reason for that is Fred Lebow, a classic New Yorker whose story is told in the new documentary "Run for Your Life," directed by Judd Ehrlich.

It shows Lebow galvanizing the sport by coming up with crazy promotions like a bagel run, a New Year's Eve Run and a race up the stairs of the Empire State Building, all while helping to give the city a much-needed shot of civic pride.

"The marathon came at a time when the city was in such dire straits," says Ehrlich, who worked on the Ric Burns documentary "New York." "[The marathon] was something that celebrated the city and it not only made New Yorkers feel good about New York, but made the world see it in a different way. It very quickly became a worldwide phenomenon and Fred became an emissary of the sport worldwide."

It was Lebow's genius, says Ehrlich, to build the marathon up into a massive event while keeping the focus on the average competitor.

"He always said, 'I don't want this to become a business,'" says Ehrlich. "He was at every race and the club was always open and people would be changing in the lobby. It was about making the sport bigger and yet there was this balance of not letting money rule the day."

And yes, Ehrlich feels compelled to tackle the marathon himself - and has cajoled much of his film crew to run it with him.

"It's appropriate that I'm new to running because that's what Fred was all about," says Ehrlich. "He ran like a duck, he was in the back of the pack and for him that didn't matter. He was the right guy to take that populist message out there." - Michael Giltz