Wheelchair athletes push their team towards the title while responding to adversity on and off the court in a new documentary coming to digital HD November 20th.
Stephen Hawking said: “It is clear that we are just an advanced breed of primates on a minor planet orbiting around a very average star, in the outer suburb of one among a hundred billion galaxies. BUT, ever since the dawn of civilization people have craved for an understanding of the underlying order of the world. There ought to be something very special about the boundary conditions of the universe. And what can be more special than that there is no boundary? And there should be no boundary to human endeavor. We are all different. However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there is life, there is hope.” Shaina Koren Allen’s documentary “The Rebound” echo’s Prof. Hawking’s words through the story of Miami Heat Wheels and their search for first-ever NBWA Championship.
The Rebound goes deep into the stories of the Miami Heat Wheels’ players to give us a feel for what they have been through and how they persevered and faced the challenges that arise, when you are disabled, when it would’ve been much more convenient to just give up and accept those challenges to be too great of a task for a disabled person. On January 13, 2006, Orlando Carrillo (Miami Heat Wheels player) was shot twice as a result of an attempted kidnapping gone wrong which resulted in his disability. The talented Jeremie Phenom Thomas, a talented musician as well as a basketballer playing for the Miami Heat Wheel, was born prematurely as a result of an accident that involved his mother. With adversities like these it would’ve been easy for these two or their teammates who have also gone through similar situations to give up and not see any hope in life at all, but hope is what they never let go off and with the hope for an education, big break, and new life, they go on with their daily activities and have a purpose much stronger than most people in life. Seeing the documentary one is reminded of Friedrich Nietzsche’s words “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how”.
Shaina Koren Allen was very successful in methodically telling the story of some of the most inspirational people in the world and after watching the documentary, I was forced to reflect upon my thinking of taking so much for granted, this lead me to appreciate the mentality of the people in this documentary, who despite being physically disabled was mentally much more able than someone like me, which was something that I was in awe of. Overall the documentary emanates the words “While there is life, there is hope” and that makes it such an inspiration for everyone who watches it, so I would highly recommend watching this documentary to everyone.
[su_youtube url=”https://youtu.be/oPKela3Zcrs”]
Featured Image Credit: Courtesy of Virgil Films.
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