new york premiere of "running the sahara" at the paley center for media

last night rob and i went to the new york premiere of "running the sahara" at the paley center for media. there was a packed house, with the 200 seat concourse theatre filled to capacity, for the event. it was my second viewing this incredible documentary because last august emmy and i were lucky enough to catch the pre-release preview of the film. here is my initial review of the film. if anything, the film was even more captivating the second time around.

in addition to the screening, james moll, the filmmaker, and ray zahab, one of the cross-sahara ultrarunners, were in attendance. they, together with charlie engle (another of the trio runners), via call-in, participated in a post-screening interview, moderated by paley center curator, ron simon. the interview, together with the question and answer session that followed, reinforced what an incredible expedition the run across the sahara was for these guys. just as impressive as the run itself, as ray pointed out at the outset, was how jim moll managed to condense 111 days of filming into 1 and a half hours of captivating documentary!

after the post-screening commentary, the audience was invited upstairs to the spielberg gallery for refreshments - which included some wonderful dessert wines and cognacs to sample. in addition, attendees were given h20 africa tee shirts (the charitable organization that is raising funds to dig more wells and provide more water to african communities).

it was also interesting to learn that ray will soon attempt a run to the south pole, pulling a sled behind him! and charlie is currently running across the united states - to finish up in new york sometime next week! it's great to know these guys are still running strong!