RUN FOR YOUR LIFE examines the fascinating life and career of marathon aficionado Fred Lebow
RUN FOR YOUR LIFE (Judd Ehrlich, 2008)
Maysles Cinema
343 Malcolm X Blvd. between 127th & 128th Sts.
Friday, November 5, $10, 7:30
212-582-6050
www.mayslesinstitute.org
www.fredlebowmovie.com
RUN FOR YOUR LIFE tells the remarkable story of Fischl Leibowitz, better known to the world as Fred Lebow. At the age of fourteen, Lebow left his home in Romania and eventually immigrated to the United States. In the late 1960s, he became obsessed with running, at the time a strange form of exercise practiced by very few New Yorkers. But soon Lebow was organizing events such as the Cherry Tree Marathon through the Bronx in 1969 and the Central Park Marathon, leading to the first-ever five-borough New York City Marathon in 1976, a race that many believe helped lead the city through its financial, crime-filled crisis. Through archival footage, news reports, photos, and new interviews with Lebow’s friends, family, and colleagues, a fascinating picture emerges of a driven visionary who was a masterful manipulator and negotiator, a man ahead of his time with regard to marketing and sponsorship. Among the people who share their memories of Lebow are marathoners Bill Rodgers, Frank Shorter, and Greta Waitz, former mayor Ed Koch, parks commissioners Henry Stern and Gordon Davis, past presidents and board members of the New York Road Runners Club, and his sister, who makes latkes for filmmaker Judd Ehrlich. Lebow was one of the all-time great New York characters, forever wearing a painter’s cap and sweatsuit, doing whatever was necessary to get himself and his sport to the next level. The ending is both exhilarating and heartbreaking. With the New York City Marathon scheduled for November 7, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, which was a highlight of the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, will have a special screening at the Maysles Cinema in conjunction with the monthly Jock Docs series.