"Backwards" Is Being Filmed In Philly

We read about and watch the top-notch athletes who are rowing at the World Championships and at the Olympics. They win medals and we are happy for their success, they lose, and we feel sorry for them, maybe thinking about all those years of hard work that left them without something to show for it. Well, at least, they can tell their children and grandchildren that they competed at the Worlds or the Olympics. Maybe they were not the best of the best, but at least they raced against the best. Now, how about those who almost made it to these Championships, the rowers who probably train and practice as hard as the rest of the National Team, but still end up ‘an alternate’?

Sarah Megan Thomas (seen above) is soon going to show us. She has written a film script, raised the money to shoot it, and is right now filming it in and around Philadelphia, with the beautiful Boathouse Row as a backdrop. She is also staring in the lead role, Abi. Thomas’s film Backwards is the story about Abi, who has spent eight years of her life to reach her dream to row in the Olympics. Twice she has been named ‘an alternate’, and now she is a high school rowing coach, working for her ex-boyfriend…..

Thomas, who is a rower, got the idea for Backwards from her rowing coach in college who left Williams College to train for the 2000 Olympics, only to be named the spare. In an article on the Philadelphia blog Uwishunu.com, Thomas said, “Philadelphia is a major rowing city. I think the film captures the beauty of the sport and the city.” She has managed to gather quite a nice crew for this film. Read the whole article here.

Below is a video clip with Thomas:



HTBS wishes Thomas luck with her film!