very privileged to have with me a documentary film producer and native. his name is seth camillo and seth, i want to welcomom you fifit to the program. i know you and your wife now california. seth is here today to talk about a tremenus effort on his part called gridiron heroes. a full-length, i believe 77 minutes, full-length documentary based on the utory of a young man hurt in high schoho and i we're going to show the trailer in a moment. you're a university of iowa graduate and in cinema and comparative lliterature. before we start about, this tell me about why you like documentary producing and why you got into it. >> seth: that's an interesting question and it happened as an undergraduate. fiction films require lots and lots of paem to make and it -- people to make and it takes a lot of resources.

was something i just got into because it was something i could do, not on my own completely, but it was something you could have an idea and realize witho involving a lot of other people and needing financing to the same extent you need for a fiction film. that's really how i got into it. it's a way to be able to tell stories and then it became -- that was the first impulse and then i began to love just being able to tell people's stories. >> ron: and documentaries also carry with them that point of view, and that kind of disguised a little bit, but thee director and producer's point of view always comes out at some point and that's fun to have that bit of control, isn't it? >> seth: absolutely, and i think if you go -- it dedends how you want to make your films, but yes, you want it to feel as if the story is unfolding vaturally, but in reali, obviously,y,ou're guiding t t story to where you want it to be and that's the trick. the magic is to sort of appear

it and the story is telling itself. >> ron: and with oducer niek a michchel moore, you know you're going in and going to get a very, very point of view that's pretty pointed. >> seth: boy, that's true. he does it in a different way, inserting himself. >> ron: let's talk, first of all, the movie is called "gridiron hoes," based on the story of chris canales, a high school football player back in 2001, his final home game as a high school senior, late in the fourth quarter he makess a tatale and pick up the story about what happened there and what led you to be interested in his story and his father eddie. >> seth: he went in to make a tackle and tragedy happened and he brokoke hisspine and he was paralyzed and he laid there on the field for a number of minutes. he was airlifted out and thth

family, that he was going to be paralyzed from the neck down for the rest of his life. chris went through difficult time for the xt year, two years. i mean, to say it's life-changing is a huge understatement. >> ron: right, absolutely seth -- absolutely. >> seth: so he went to a game with his father, a football game, trying to get out of the dee dee progression, and he saw -- deep depression and he saw another player on the field paralyzed in much the same way he did, and he turned to his father and said i knkn what my purpose in life is now, helping people who suffer this injury. that's a primary focus and that's what started through the mission statement. >> ron: his story is so familiar to another iowan, a bon durant ster radar ra high school flair, chris norton, a freshman at

made a tackleon a kickoff and suffered a severe spinal cord injury and he's also created a foundation as the canal less family has. let's take a quick break to look at the movie trailer, a couple of minutes long, kind of lays out what this is all about as far as the story of chris canales and what the documentary shows. >> narrator: footbtbl, a uniquely american sport. it defines young men's lives, gives them a place to learn and a way to think about themselves and the other players around them, but now football finds itself at a crossroads. it creates but sometimes it destroys. [ sounds of game play ] >> 70, 80-year-oldman up in the stands and they kill him, take his head off. >> nobody ever wants to see anybody get hurt, but

sometimem they get hurt. >> for years, football celebrated t t guys that take the big hits. >> a lot of these injuries are led to by leading with one's head. >> which is indescribably dangerous. >> and everydy says it's a strategic accidents it's tragic, but it's not an accident. >> it wowos for that particular play, but it came with a cost that a lot of people didn't recognize until it was too late. >> before the game even srted, i had this weird feeling that something was going to happen. >> chris was basically having the game of his life. came up on that one tackle. >> everything just slows down, hearing the crowd go silent, and then seeing your teammates come and try to get you up and you can't move. >> the doctor told us chris would be paralyzed from the shoulders down. >> eddie and chris, father and son, formed gridiron heroes with a simple and powerful mandate. >> opening up your heart, taking all the pain that he's gone through and sharing it with someone else and lping that

>> gridiron heroes. >> the gridiron heroes absolutely sum up what heroes is all abo. >> to have the honor of being able to present him tonight, he's going to use that trtredy to impact other people. >> in the bling blink of an eye or the course of a career, what coululbe done? >> i don't know where my mind will be in ten years but it's scary. >> it is scary, but the damage is done. >> football is going to have to adapt. >> if it doesn't chahae, it's going to die at the root because nobody with intelligence is going to let their kids play. >> they have a huge responsibility to make this game safe as it can possibly be. >> b bause of chris d eddieie the hope is for the game to go on and stay deeply embedded into the fiber of america. >> ron: so there you get a sense about. it runs 77 minutes, you have some very well known former

warner and mike ditka and some of the other people. how would you able to get these documentary? >> seth: welel my co-director, andy lower, is an actor and has been in the l.a. sccne for many years, and through his connections, we were really able to contact a lot of people, and people want to talk about it too. >> seth: change. andy was on "caroline in the city," and he does know people, and once we were able to contact people, they were eager to talk. people in the sport, 's on their r minds. i ththk it's the biggest sports story that we'll see because, you know, there's stroirderoids, a lot of things going on, , t nothing g at can sort of affect human life in this way and it's challenging to the sports world to change. i mean, change is difficult. >> ron: we've talked about this

yslike toto dorsett having awe these problems, so many former problems if that have these terrible hits and obviously the equipment wasn't nearly is a good back then as it is now, but even now, they're ststl having tremendous injuries. >> seth: and the thing is that, from my point of view and obviously you have to say, whenever you talk about this, i mean, i'm not a neurologist, not a physicist and even if you are, it's going to take years to really understand things, but it's probably from my point of view not going to be an equipment issue. it's going to be a state of mind, a trtrning issue and a rules issue that, because if you just can't -- they're going to have to change the amount of force, basically, that transfers on a play-by-play basis and these even subconcussive stuff and that's something just now being talked about. it's not just the huge hits, it's the thousands of almost concussions as one of allen schwartz speaks about in our

concussion can even be more deadly because you don't know that it's s ppening and it accumulates every year. that's the thinking that the medical world is wondering at this point. >> ron: we're going to take a short break and come back here anantalk more with south carolina -- with seth camillo, a nativef iowa city and his

we'll be >> rononwelcome back to this

very privileged to have with us as our special guest, this is seth camillo, a documentary film producernd director who has released a brand-new movie called "gridiron heroes." by the way, there's a foundation out there by the very same name and you can reach it easily by going to gridironheroes.org. we were talking about points of view in dumentaries. u're not against football at all. >> seth: not at all. >> ron: that's not what the movie is about. it's finding a solution to make sure people aren't injured. tell me, what were you trying to say in the movie? >> seth: what are we trying to say in the movie, first anan foremost, wewee trying to give a human face to the numbers, because a lot of fans, coaches, people involved in the game are debating, head injuries, spinal cord injuries, but whehe you e the actual impact that these things have on people, from concussions to the people with alzheimer's type problems,

e people end up wheelchairs, it will change those numbers. they don't just become percentages, they become real human faces and when you deal om that point of vw, then you go to the point, okay, the gaga needs to be changed, how can we do that to make it safer. we offer up a possibly solution or something that's going to take a myriad of changes. technique. they don't believe tackling technique and i don't think anybody in the game, pros think taught. and that was a groundbreakiki technique developed out in california and it was the nfl taking on that they also believe in and are promoting. that's one facet, but it's going to take a whole mindset that we love the game. is game is for the players, it's something that people forget. i think that's so important. most of these people playing football are 18 and under and the guys in college arar also collegiate athletes and we're trying to give them a great experience too. that's the first and foremost

they're playing. in the pros, it's a completely different thing, but it's a population. this is a game that's supposed to teach young men to grow d have life skills and it needsto effective way. everybody knows that football as wonderful training ground, but we all need to work together to make it safe and that's what the film is trying to say. >> ron: obviously, they have helmet. are you satisfied or there is a movement out theree that that's just not nearly enough. >> seth: no, it's not enough. for instance, on the line, thfy hit helmets almost everyy time. it's just technique. i believe honestly the nfl at this point is open and the wants -- they know the future of the game is depending upon the safety of the game. they that -- because right now that 10-year-old, it's only another 12 years before he plays nfl football and if his parents don't want him to play, they're

they've made a lot of changes and continue to make changes to make it safer and they've alreadmade exchanges and the game is equally as exciting andnd squally as popular, so i think that argument that you're going to cut the guts out of the game to make it safer, i don't agree with that at all. >> ron: like we saw on the trailer, vicious hits in there, and those are part of the grame, but people like -- of the game, but people liketo e great plays and defensive plays and hits. seth: absolutely. >> ron: how did you meet the canal less family and what dedication? >> seth: carl chandler as actor a frfray night live and he describes them in the film, some people are just give verse and you meet eddie and chris,

their heararmuch comininout of their chest. and chris has suffered a lot, but all he's thinking about is how to help other people and eddie, the passion to help others is so apparent, and they want -- you know, it's people. they want to help the players that have been injured, which is something that people forget. it's not just about prevention. there are people, quadriplegics out there that need help and they're forgotten. you know, once they're in those chairs, a few years go by and people forget that they ever existed and they gave their bodies fororhat game and it's up to t t game to give back to those kids. that's one of the mantras and the other is to reduce the number of people injured. it's a sport, people are going to get injured, everybody knows that, but there's a coach in the documentary who says it's incumbent upon us, our moral responsibility to do everything we can to make the game as safe as possible and that's all anybody y n ask for. it's not that nobody ever gets jurkd it's just the things that can be done are done.

interviews with skris and i was struck by -- with ris and i was struck by his positive attitude. it must be incredibly difficult, t he has this amazing attitude about paying thisforward although he was stuck where he was forever. >> seth: he's an extremely strong, strong young man and his father is also very strong and their family is just a wonderful family and yoyou get a feeling -- honestly, i started out with this project and i was looking through footage and they pushed me because i'm inspired by them. >> ronon origininly go back to when you first hear about this and when you say this is a documentary production. tell me kind of the timetable of that. >> seth: andy, the co-director, had, you know, this idea in his head a a, you know, some of his other hollywood friends had been talking about and had been working a little bit on it, and then i came in very early and started looking at the footage. i think he wanted to do maybe a a little bit of the smaller piece

floored and moved when you hear them talking on the camera and we went forward from then. andy and i did work with peter berg for six months to make a 25-minute piece specifically to advocate for heads-up ackling, and so during that period as well, it s just eat training ground to get, you know, the arguments and the ins and outs of this, you know, what's being talked about sort of ironed on you as we made that piece togegeer. so when we came out of that and we were able to -- really knowledgeable and ready to go to make a film like this. >> ron: what wasas the time from the time you started until it was actually complete? >> seth: four years. there's a lot of legal steps and a lot of stuff that takes a lot of time. the actual making g the film -- because we do it, you know, these documentaries, as i was taking, we sort of book-end things, you know, there's nefits to making documentaries. you really g g to do yoyo own --

but you also have to do a lot of work -- a lot of my friends who make fiction fflims, i tell them i'm doing x, y or z with legal and they said, i didn't know that happened. >> ron: you can see that in the credits. there's 300 credits. we're goinin to take one more break and talk more with seth

the timetable alone, it's ndith us. >> ron: and welcome back to our nal segment of this week's special edition of the steele report with our special guest, seth camillo, a former native of iowa city, now live in santa monica, california, with his wife. 's a documentary film producer and director who has a new film out, just premiered in iowa here recely called "griron heroes," and it's based on the spinal cord injury suffered by a young football player in high school back in 2001, chris canales, and what his family has done to create their gridiro heroes foundation. i'm kind of curious, though, seth, about -- you go back to making this documentary and whether it's this movie, "gridiron heroes," or another, where does it begin and how difficult is it to -- from completion -- om the start, conception, to completion to make sure this thing gets on the silver screen, so to speak? and you had a great showing out in hollywood, right?

theater, previously known as mann's chinese theater and we're on -- you know, we have a distributor at this point, so i really don't -- they take care of it and put it on itunes and they try to get on it television and stuff like that, so they take care of that part of things, but to get it, you have an idea and then you strategically think, can i actually get this done. the first feature film i ever hade was called "matc maker," and previous to my getting married, i was about my friend and i going to the largest matchmaking festival in the world in ireland and hiring a tchmaker and we filmlm ourselels doing it. the first, going through the process and essentially, you know, it was fun to watch us -- at least me, kind of fail. the thing about it, we thought is this something we can do? strategically, it's a couple of weeks in ireland, we'll bring the cameras and you formulate a

but hhonestly, i would -- it's maybe a little bit of blind faith, you just kind of do it and it's going to take the time it takes. sometimes i think you get lucky in some ways and sometimes the soundd doesn't come through and you have -- i think if you really sat down and thought about it too hard and accounted for your hours and stuff like that, you might not be inclined to do it. i think these films are a labor of love. >> ron: i was going to say, you don't -- i assume you make some money on them. >> seth: yeah, sure. >> ron: hopefully a lot, but the fact is, it is a passion. >> seth: exactly. >> ron: it comes from within and you see things differently than people, you see things in composition that other people don't see. >> seth: exactly and that comes from, really, hours. it's just -- it just takes so much time and energy and phone calls and favors and you just can't -- you just get into it and it sort of becomes almost zen.

you're doing it and you can't really worry too much about the end rresults, but you have the belief that it's going to be wonderful and people are going to be affected by it and you just go with that proposition. i think it is like aying sports. you just do everytng over the years to get as good as you possibly can and you have a belief that it's goingng to be worthwhile. >> ron: put yourself in a position to be successful. r> seth: exactly. >> ron: what is landlockekeiowa festival? i was reading about that. >> seth: my wife was co-director of landlocked this year and we've both been involved for, gosh, seven or eighttyears, bubu it is a wonderful film festival and we bring in a lot of great films and it's just wonderful. if you've never been able to go to one, you should really go to one, especiallllif you have any interest in film, but even if you don't, because what's great about it, it's a community of creative artists who are sort of -- they're all hold away in the artments and houses and then this is the mome when you can mee them andd talk to them

it's just a lot of energy and it's iowa city and generally in the summer, so it's a lot of fun. >> ron: iowa ally has a pretty thriving film industry right now and who would have thought a movie like "whiplash" would have done as well as it did. >> seth: yes. >> ron: it w w fantastic. i remember a movie made not too long ago, sean aston played one of the baseball coaches. great movie, but i don't think it got the distributeship that itit needs and that's really one of the hardest parts, isn't it? >> seth: now we're talking shop and the truth of the matter is that i have relatives and friends in the rketing part of and it's really -- you know, i'm not -- this is not a total expert opinion, but what i've ard is past production budget a marketing,g,f you watch all those commercials on national tv, you know those aren't cheap, and so -- >> ron: right. >> seth: -- there's a lot of money in the marketing and

learned over the last couple films is allow -- you made it, but it's difficult to get people to hear about it through the clutter because there's so much. >> ron: exactly, ththe's so many. >> seth: like obviously "concussion" is coming out, the fictional film about concussion, but it's based on reality and it's sorof walking the line in between the two, but they have so much attention, but they have so much money. >> ron: exactly. >> seth: that's kind of how it goes. >> ron: we have a minu or so. tell me wt you hope to do with your movie moving it forward, getting the word out about it and hopefully people come and see it around the country. what's next if "gridiron heroes," the ovie? >> seth: i hope to help eddie and chris meet their mission, which is to raise awareness, raise funds for the people who have been injured. there was a kid who needed help breathing and he didn't have the money for a backup generator.

sassed away. they just didn't have enough monene that's t t kind of thing thatt eddie is trying to solve. even just the basic stuff like that needs to be taken care of, and then also we need to raqse awareness because football needs to change and less of these injuries need to occur. so hopefully, you know, the system can be helpful, but more than anything, it's people to see that this is real and it's not liking or disliking football. it's about protecting children and that's what it comes down to >> ron: bgain, the movie the "gririron heroes," and yououan do a search, obviously, and come up with that and the foundation itself, the canales family is al gridironheroes.orgrg so check out those twoo sites online and learn more about seth camillo and about what he's done as a documentary producer and. >> seth: and we have the next one come out is abouout the world -- i made it with my mother.

traveling circus and we did it over ten years, traveled with the circus. >> ron: it's called "the circus," right? >> seth: yes, sir. >> ron: seth, thanks vmp for being on the show. we'll seseyou next week, also

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