Film: Unbeaten, Wheelchair Race, Paralympics, Gold Medalist, Dan Aykroyd, Filmmaker Steven C. Barber

Dec. 14, 2009 - PRLog -- Vanilla Fire Productions and Polaris Media Group have teamed up for the project Unbeaten, the second film from award-winning documentary filmmaker Steven C. Barber which makes its debut early January 2010 on PolarisMediaGroup.com. Barber is taking the Paralympic Gold Medalist and Marine Veteran www.OzSanchez.com on a world-wide trek including Australia, the Sundance Film Festival, and the Vancouver 2010 Paralympics. Vanilla Fire Productions and Polaris Media Group will be premiering this film in NYC and LA in early January 2010.  


This inspirational film chronicles the exploits of 31 paraplegics as they make their way over rough terrain during 6 grueling days in wheelchairs and hand cycles in what is known as the toughest road race in the world, "Challenge Alaska."  The course winds 267 miles though the mountain passes of Denali National Park between Fairbanks and Anchorage.

The film takes us into the 55 mile-per-day grind of three wheelchair racers, Chris Kohler, Geoffrey Erickson and Edwin Figueroa. The story transitions midway through as the filmmaker follows the elite racers of the US Paralympics squad, Oz Sanchez (current Paralympic Gold Medalist and fastest man in the world in a hand cycle) and Alijandro Albor(Silver Medalist) in their quest to medal at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.

Unbeaten will make you laugh, make you cry and make you stand up and cheer! These men and women show the entire world what can be done and words like "disabled" and "obstacle" are only that...words!!

Vanilla Fire Productions has teamed up with The Polaris Media Group to get this amazing film all around the world. Director Steven C. Barber, producers Greg Strom and Tamara Henry have all come together for one synergistic mission, and that is to raise the profile of the disabled athlete and disabled American.

Mr. Barber was stunned when he was in Beijing filming this documentary and out of 6000 journalist found out that he was one of only a handful of journalists from America. Mr. Barber called all of the major networks and his pleas for coverage fell on deaf ears. It has now become a driving mission to get all of the media possible to focus in on Vancouver 2010 Paralympics and London 2012 Paralympics. "Because America has not been able to find ways to profit off the disabled athlete yet, their importance has gone unnoticed," says Barber. But that is not going to stop him or the producers to use "Unbeaten" as a platform to raise the profile of the disabled in a positive and awe-inspiring way!

This three year odyssey to finish the film came with the help of some of the highest profile individuals in the world including, Steve Forbes, Eli Broad, Boone Pickens, Cher, Billy Jean King, Tony Hawk, Clint Black, Paula and Sumner Redstone, Larry Hagman, Clint Black and Pamela Anderson. An eclectic group to be sure!

Unbeaten will debut in early January 2010 and more information on this amazing film can be seen at http://www.UNBEATENTHEMOVIE.com and http://www.AMERICANPARAPLEGIC.com   Partial proceeds from this film will be given to the Challenged Athletes Foundation. This foundation has secured over 26-million dollars in funding in its 16 years of operation, and the founder, Bob Babbitt who is also the editor for Competitor Magazine has embraced the film and will debuting the first trailer for the public on Dec 19th at an Exclusive 400 person event for the Ironman. More information can be found www.PolarisMediaGroup.com and www.VanillaFire.com