Behind every great movie there's the proverbial 'cast of thousands.' The unsung, but essential people - crew, consultants, writers, technicians and such - who make a movie happen behind the scenes. And when award-winning film maker Niobe Thompson's documentary, "The Perfect Runner," premiered on Wednesday to acclaim, Jim Denison sat in the theatre and proudly smiled.
With good reason: Denison, a coaching education professor in the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation and biographer to Ethiopia's celebrated runner Haile Gebrselassie, was able to play a key role in making Thompson's dream come to life.
"The greatest runners in the world are from Ethiopia," says Denison. "So, firstly, my access and connections to people in Ethiopia - Haile, Ermias Ayele, general manager of the Great Ethiopian Race and consultant Richard Nerurkar - helped Niobe who wanted to show an example of where barefoot running is the predominant way of running and where, as it happens, they do produce the world's perfect runners.
"They were able to set up all the logistics that Niobe needed for his filming there - transport, translation, hotels, access to athletes and so on."
As Director of the Canadian Athletics Coaching Centre, Denison was also able to connect Thompson with one of the world's leading experts in foot function, Dr. Larry Bell, an Ontario-based chiropractor, who regularly visits the centre for seminars and to work with the athletes who train out of the centre.
"Dr. Bell is one of the world's experts, in an applied sense, working with athletes to help them to re-engage the use of their feet, particularly the activation of the big toe as a device for forward propulsion, and who has worked with several Olympic sprint medalists," says Denison, an avid runner and former university distance athlete.
And while Denison's star turn in the film ended up on the cutting room floor he says it was an incredible honour to work with Thompson on a subject so close to his own heart. "It was a wonderful experience, and, as you can imagine, our Centre was very proud to be part of this production and to contribute in some measure, to the success of it."
Thompson has plenty of praise for Denison's assistance. "Dr. Denison recently helped breathe life into one of our most ambitious and complex documentaries, The Perfect Runner, a major CBC/ARTE one-hour film, that explores the science of distance running," he says.
"As Haile Gebrselassie's biographer and friend, Jim opened doors for our film crew to work in Ethiopia with some of the world's best runners, while Jim's role as director of North America's leading athletics coaching institute gave our project access to cutting edge research and the best Canadian runners. We simply could not have made his film without Jim's expertise and connections."