State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota (SCF) will host nationally known athletes at a screening of “Blood Road,” a documentary that follows the journey of ultraendurance mountain bike athlete Rebecca Rusch and her Vietnamese riding partner, Huyen Nguyen, as they pedal 1,200 miles along the infamous Ho Chi Minh Trail through the dense jungles of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia to find the spot where Rusch’s father was killed 40 years earlier. Tickets are $10 and available online at SCFTickets.com. To see a film trailer, visit traileraddict.com/blood-road-2017/trailer.
“Blood Road” will be screened at 4 p.m. March 20 followed by a panel discussion at 5:30 p.m. at SCF’s Neel Performing Arts Center, 5840 26th St. W. The panel includes Rusch, the filmmaker; Reggie Williams, a former linebacker with the Cincinnati Bengals, a Sports Illustrated Person of the Year, and Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year; Sue Zipay, former professional baseball player with the Rockford Peaches of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and founder of the Women’s Sports Museum; Lisa Moody, film producer and director of the ART Network at Ringling College of Art and Design; Michael Heuser, film producer; and Col. Linda Gould, retired U.S. Army. Ann Fries, former artistic director of the Through Women’s Eyes Film Festival will moderate the panel discussion.
A second screening of “Blood Road” begins at 7 p.m. followed by an 8:30 p.m. reception in the SCF Fine Arts Gallery where visitors can meet Rusch and the other panelists.
Rusch’s father, a U.S. Air Force pilot, was shot down over Laos during the war in Vietnam. Throughout this poignant voyage of self-discovery, Rusch and Nguyen push their bodies to the limit while learning more about the historic road they’re pedaling and how the Vietnam War shaped their lives in different ways.
The SCF educational film series and panel discussion is in partnership with the SCF Film Club, Women’s Sports Museum, Sarasota Film Festival and the Through Women’s Eyes Film Festival.
For information, contact Del Jacobs at JacobsD@SCF.edu or 941-752-5593.