‘Man in Motion: The Rick Hansen Story’ Doc Takes Viewers Back to 1980s Globe-Circling Wheelchair Trek: “It’s Just Insane”

The story of Canadian athlete turned disability activist Rick Hansen propelling his wheelchair 40,075 kilometers around the world in his 1984 Man in Motion tour to raise money and awareness for spinal cord injuries is already legend.

But the notion of a documentary with an “untold story” suggests there’s much that the world didn’t get to see 40 years ago. And director Adrian Buitenhuis and producer Derik Murray, with Man in Motion: The Rick Hansen Story, produced by Ryan Reynolds and Maximum Effort, point to a trove of private audio diaries recorded by Hansen while aged 27 and paralyzed from the waist down, and never-before-seen archival footage, including from music producer David Foster . It all underlines their decision to take a behind-the-scenes look at a grueling 26-month wheelchair journey with a Free Solo vibe. Related Stories Movies Toronto: Global Media Producers Urge Stronger Local Content Laws to Fend Off Streaming Domination Movies Toronto: Ex-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Launches Film, TV Production Banner Hope & Hard Work

“There’s a lot that happened on the tour; there’s a lot of struggle and challenges to actually make it happen that I don’t think the media initially was able to capture or were given a window to,” Buitenhuis tells The Hollywood Reporter about turning adversity – a truck crash at age 15 that left Hansen paralyzed from the waist down — into possibility.

What does make the final cut this time round for the Man in Motion documentary is a romance that grew on the world tour between Hansen and his physiotherapist Amanda Reid, who, away from the media glare, became his girlfriend even as she barely pushed through endless barriers to maintain his mental and physical endurance.

“Their love story as it grows together over those two years, two months and two days is a huge part of the story,” Buitenhuis adds of the private cassette tapes that are revealed to the world for the first time. Murray recalled an early film development meeting with Hansen and Amanda Hansen, whom he married in 1987, where a trove of personal audio recordings mentioned in an earlier book was brought up.

“Rick was like, ‘Oh, yeah, those audio tapes, yeah, I got them in the vault. I’ll get you those,” Hansen answered, which brought a joy of discovery that Murray and Buitenhuis could barely contain. That’s until, just after Rick Hansen returned with the private tapes a sheepish Amanda Hansen revealed she too had recorded her own tour thoughts on her own cassette tapes, had never listened to them and after some reluctance gave them up to the filmmaking team.

The private tapes, as heard in the documentary, reveal far more than words spoken, often after each long and tortuous day on the road. “It’s not only what he’s saying, but there’s a feeling to them that’s so powerful.