The Standing Spirit Project Video
Throughout the spiritually and physically challenging trip, two of the team's members made up the filmmaking crew. Corby Petersen, a veteran of the West Coast Trail, directed and shot a documentary film about the trip and the Standing Spirit Project's group members. The other filmmaking member was Graeme Ball. He spent countless hours focused on the editing of the film and on the operation of the camera. Together, the filmmaking team of the Standing Spirit Project created the Standing Spirit Project Video.
| The trailer begins with an spiritually touching introduction by Brad Jacobson. Afterwards, the trailer presents shots of the team travelling through the forest and beach with their ingenious gizmos, the harness and Trail Rider. Through these fantastic clips, the endless effort and fun the group has put into this challenging project may be seen, even by a passing bystander. Just as the team cheers at the camera, we hope you will support us in our project! |
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The Standing Spirit Project is about identity. In a contemporary culture that encourages us, at nearly every turn, to squander our physicality, Brad Jacobsen was one of those guys who celebrated his.Growing up in northern British Columbia, Brad derived his sense of self from his |
| physicality: hiking, swimming, skiing. In a heartbeat, eleven years ago, that was stolen from him. Brad became a quadriplegic. He chased an errant Frisbee into a river and broke his neck. The Standing Spirit Project is about struggle. Confined to a wheelchair, Brad must reconcile the wild, independent spirit that defined his able-bodied self with having to entrust to others his care, his safety, his very existence. |
Brad had hiked the West Coast Trail as an able-bodied man. He knew its perils, its tough physical challenges, its uplifting beauty. The idea that he would make the same journey as a quadriplegic seemed a pipe dream. But in August of 2005, strapped into a Trail Rider, in the company of nine dedicated hikers, Brad Jacobsen became the first person with a significant physical disability to hike the West Coast Trail.
The Standing Spirit Project is a defiant reunion. It sets free the human spirit in those diminishing wild places, the sacred places where one can be reconnected to the power and rhythms of the planet and the natural order of things. For Brad, it is a bittersweet reunion with a former sense of self.
With steadfast determination, Brad and his team silenced all those who believed the West Coast Trail to be an impossible challenge for a man living in a wheelchair.
The Standing Spirit Project reminds us, as does Brad Jacobsen himself, the only barriers that exist are the ones you erect for yourself. In overcoming it, Brad’s struggle has been to forge a new sense of self, based on the barriers imposed by his life changing injury.
“It’s about getting back a little of what you thought was gone.”
Brad Jacobsen - CFUN interview
“The reason we named it the Standing Spirit Project is because I believe that no matter what happens to you physically, your spirit remains standing and you have to access that. You can’t just sit and stagnate… you have to move forward.”
Brad Jacobsen - CFUN interview
download The Vision (.doc)
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