The Man in Motion hits the Silver Screen at the VIFF

Well, before we get into this, I know you're a super humble guy.

What is it like when you all of a sudden sit down in front of the silver screen and you're watching yourself go through something that happened more than 30 years ago?

Oh my God, it was incredibly emotional the first time we saw it at the Toronto premiere at the International Film Festival.

And My wife, Amanda, and I, we were both sitting there for the first time watching the story unfold from the perspective of the director, Adrian Boutenhouse, and of course the producer, Derek Murray.

And they put a story together.

And how do you tell a story like that in 90 minutes? But we were blown away by how much emotion it brought back.

You know, the sense of awe of the, you know, the scope of the journey and how hard it was.

The you know, the sense of resilience and, and you know, and, and the response.

And of course the naivety of,

Well, I was just going to ask you what surprises you most about seeing perhaps a younger Rick Hansen in those recordings?

Yeah, you know, those recordings weren't meant for anybody.

And so listening to those voices and that personal diary related voice, you know, I was clearly super young and naive.

I had no idea.

I kept thinking it was going to get better.

But the struggle, and I didn't realize how close to the line we were.

And yet the resilience, you know, the passion that I had to make a difference, which got me most of the way.

But in reflection, you know, it was also the incredible gratitude because, man, I had an incredible team of people.

And, you know, the folks who were there that were just teammates, friends, family, they just were there when I needed them most.

And, you know, I just feel so grateful.