Brolin Mawejje has two dreams. First, to become a surgeon (he’s currently a pre-med student). And second, to represent Uganda in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Brolin emigrated to a Boston suburb at 12, and after two years of struggle and bullying, he was introduced to snowboarding by Phil Hessler and some other local kids. That’s when it all turned around. A handful of years later, Phil, along with a lean crew, produced a film about Brolin’s story. And the film was just the beginning. I reached out to Phil to talk about the film and the journey left ahead.
Far From Home is making the festival circuit. Where and when can we watch the film?
Yup, so we’ve shown the film at nearly twenty festivals. We premiered at Santa Barbara International in early February and have been on the circuit for nearly three months. Some of the highlights of the circuit have been from Boulder, Sonoma, Phoenix, and Stockholm! We’ve also done a bunch of high school showings and put on our premieres in Salt Lake City and Jackson. We have a few more festivals coming up in June which are posted on our site.
We are currently talking to a wide variety of distributors, which means a lot of meetings in LA. We will have a deal nailed down by midsummer and then we’ll release the film in the Fall digitally to kick off the #Brolin2018 campaign. There is a possibility that the release may be pushed back to next Spring.
The world of film distribution is changing so fast right now that we wanted to maximize our potential for getting this film out there and not start putting the film out there too early.
The story isn’t over. Are you guys still filming for a continuing installment?
The story is far from over! Yes and we are actually working on a potential TV series that would follow Brolin over the next two seasons up to the Olympics. More to come on that soon! We see Far From Homeas the spark to ignite the journey ahead. Our goal is to create a narrative feature after the Olympics. Cool Runnings meets BlindSide with a touch of Good Will Hunting.
Now you’ve pivoted a bit from telling the story to raising funds and awareness to get Brolin to the Olympics. How has this leg of the journey been going?
Yes, it’s going to take a lot to get Brolin to the Olympics, but it’s totally possible. We’ve been focusing on strategic partnerships with the right companies who can support Brolin long-term. We also have been raising funds through our non-profit, The Futurepositiv Project. You can also buy merchandise from our site, with the proceeds going to Brolin’s journey. We really see all these goals as stepping stones to enacting change in East Africa. Far From Home helps get Brolin to the Olympics. The Olympics enables us to create the narrative feature. The narrative feature enables Brolin and our team to be in a position to encourage growth and enact change in the healthcare system of East Africa.
We launched a bunch of features for physical goods last week. How has your experience been selling your stuff with Gumroad?
Gumroad has been awesome. Extremely easy to navigate and setup, the perfect avenue for us to start selling merchandise!
Any new features you’d like to see?
To be honest, not that I can think of off the top of my head. You guys are killing it. Thanks very much for allowing us to share this incredible story and help us change the world through snowboarding! #Brolin2018
Further reading:
Here’s a great interview with Brolin on ESPN.com.
And here’s another on OutsideOnline.com.
Read more about Far From Home, and support Brolin’s quest at farfromhomemovie.com.