True Grit

          Dr. Bob Breedlove - amazing human being

This is my second year of having the privilege of being a judge for the Fallbrook Film Festival. We judge independent films from around the globe and have a festival screening in the spring. I have sifted, viewed, enjoyed and gritted my teeth through scores of movies this season. Some good, some not so good. Like last year, I find that the documentaries tend to be more compelling. The general quality level of the fictional works this year hasn't been quite up to last years entrants but we have a lot of films to still watch and I am just one judge's voice.

My favorite movie of the submissions so far is called Bicycle Dreams, produced by Stephen Auerbach. It is a documentary of the 2005 Race across America, an event where the most obsessed, determined, committed masochists you have ever witnessed pedal from San Diego to Atlantic City, solo, team and tandem. With very little sleep and a lot of drama and pain. I come away from this movie with a new appreciation and awareness of the breadth of the human will (and a new respect for Slovenians).

Two of the most famous RAM riders live here in Fallbrook and work out at my gym, the Penseyres brothers. I don't know them but will never look at them the same way after seeing this movie. If it plays at festivals near you and you have a chance, check it out.