“More To Live For” is a documentary about three special men afflicted with cancers that desperately required bone marrow matches. Two of them lived, one by benefit of a match, the other’s still waiting, the third … passed away waiting. But they all contributed to raising awareness and inspiring others into doing the right thing and donating.
Directed by Noah Hutton – son of actors Debra Winger and Timothy Hutton – “More To Live For” follows the lives of James Chippendale, a Dallas entertainment/sports insurance broker (CSI Insurance) who—together with another cancer survivor, musician Mike Peters of the Alarm—formed the music-centric Love Hope Strength cancer Foundation to help others; Seun Adebiyi, a Nigerian Math genius and Yale Law School grad who became an athlete looking to compete in his first Winter Olympics; and Michael Brecker, a highly regarded jazz musician/composer who won 15 Grammys.
The documentary—presented and supported by Couple 3 Films Inc. and the Love Hope Strength Foundation—was recently selected to show at both the Sedona (Feb. 20-27) and Cleveland International Film Festivals (Mar. 24-Apr. 3).
The first Sedona IFF screening happened on February 23 at the Sedona Rouge Theater, with a second to follow February 26, 12:30 p.m., at the Harkins 6. Both screenings include a Q&A with director Hutton and producers Susan Brecker, Michael’s widow, and Chippendale, as well as an opportunity for attendees to sign up on a bone marrow registry.
The 83-minute “More To Live For” will next show March 25, 2:20 p.m., March 26, 1:30 p.m., and March 27, 7:10 p.m., at Cleveland’s International Film Festival.
During the rest of his lifetime, saxophonist/composer and Downbeat’s 2007 “Jazz Hall of Famer” Michael Brecker was able to drum up interest and involvement in bone donor registry after he contracted myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) in 2004. Despite searching and waiting, and a near-match transplant, Brecker passed away at 57 in 2007. Between 2004 and 2007, Brecker toured all over the world, doing lots of festivals, getting the word out about donating, and completed his “Pilgrimage” album, which would give him two Grammys, posthumously. The documentary neatly covers Brecker's time working on his last album. While he could not benefit from the bone marrow donor drives, he would live on in the 50 lives he did touch through matches.
The “More To Live For” documentary earned a nomination in the Cleveland IFF’s Greg Gund Memorial Standing Up Film Competition. The competition honors “films with a conscience.”
Do these great men a favor. Sign up as a donor, conduct your own donor drives, and learn how easy it is to save a life.
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