"Running America" only in Digiplex Theaters May 3 - 9

“RUNNING AMERICA”

Digiplex Exclusive

May 3 - 9

In "Running America," ultra-marathoners Charlie Engle and Marshall Ulrich, the only person in the world to complete the Triple Crown of Extreme Sports, team up to press the human physical and mental strengths to their limits on a record breaking run from San Francisco to New York. 

The challenge: run 3,063 miles in 46 days, starting in San Francisco and running to Times Square in NYC.  To accomplish this record-breaking milestone, they have to run close to SEVENTY miles per day!

Charlie Engle and Marshall Ulrich in "Running America"

This ground breaking documentary film follows Charlie and Marshall on their journey through sheer determination and willpower in this amazing physical and mental endurance event.

Patience, perseverance and faith drive them as they experience extreme fatigue as well challenging and dark moments of self-doubt and injury. 

"Running America" follows the highs and lows of their incredible feat as they run the equivalent of 117 marathons over 52 days.  Their epic run is their quest to reach out to ordinary Americans around the country, raising awareness for the United Way and drawing attention to childhood obesity.

Charlie Engle, the star of “Running the Sahara,” became one of the first people to run across the entire Sahara desert over 111 days, all 4,300 miles.  Ulrich, has completed 116 ultra marathons and reached the top of all Seven Summits on all seven continents.

“Running America” is the eighth film in the DigiNext series, a curated series of independent films fresh from festivals around the world.  "Running America" will debut exclusively at Digiplex Theaters across the country.  Digiplex will donate 30% of ticket sales to OneFundBoston to aid victims of the Boston Marathon attack.

Exclusive Q&A with ultramarathoner Charlie Engle:

1.How long did it take to plan Running America?

I first had the idea for Running America sometime around 2003. In truth, every ultra distance runner thinks about doing this run. It is an iconic symbol of freedom and there is a long tradition of running from coast to coast. Like most of my painful ideas, Running America sat dormant for years but it was really always there, just waiting for me to commit. That happened in 2007 when I decided it was time to get serious. I had just completed my run across the Sahara Desert and I knew I wanted to start planning the next thing.  As it turns out, the logistics planning was equally as hard as the physical undertaking itself.

2.How did you train to run 70 miles every day? –Running America presented a problem for me physically. I needed to run almost 500 miles per week to set a new record. But to run that much in training was just not possible or healthy. So I focused more on just trying to be healthy. Experience had taught me that my body would adapt to the stress during the run but to beat myself up further before the run just didn't make sense. As it turned out, I was not able to stay healthy before the run due to the stress of preparation and training. I was working and training for 18 hours every day and I

contracted a bad staph infection. If I had to do it again (and I just might), I would try to delegate much more of the logistics to others and just focus on my physical health.

3. How did you feel when the doctor told you that you would do permanent damage to your leg if you didn't stop? Did you consider continuing anyway?

The moment when the doctor told me I had to quit is forever etched in my mind. It brought out a mixture of emotions for me because I was desperate to continue but I was in so much pain, I just couldn't see a way to finish this run. I was severely depressed at this point of the expedition. I felt like I was letting down so many people but I had accept what the doc was telling me. All my toes on my right foot were numb at the time and I knew he was telling me the truth. Through my sadness over the situation, I was still able to see that this was an opportunity if I just looked at it the right way. I needed to accept that things had changed and that my job now was to support my fellow runner and to find a way to make something positive out of this mess.

4.How did it feel to run with the kids in Sydney, Iowa?

The day that I ran into Sydney, Iowa is one of the best days of my life. These kids didn't care about any records or injuries or sponsors. All they wanted to do was run and to me acknowledged. I literally felt a weight lifted from my heart when I met these kids and ran into Sydney. At that moment I knew that everything was going to be alright if I just kept moving forward.  Those kids saved me.

5. Do you plan to try again to set the Running America record?

I think about trying again every day. I have so many places I still want to run across in the world but I can say for sure that I will try again to break this record. There is a reason that the record has existed for 33 years now. It's simply the most difficult running record on the world to break. That's the very reason I am so drawn to it. All the odds are against anyone ever being able to break it. But just because something may seem impossible, that doesn't

mean we shouldn't try.

"Running America"

May 3 - 9

Only in Digiplex Theaters

Tom Cruise stars in Oblivion at Digiplex Theaters

“Oblivion”

Digiplex Theaters on April 19th

Sixty years after the Earth was nearly destroyed by an alien attack, former marine commander, Jack Harper, played by Tom Cruise is one of the last few drone repairmen on earth.

The year is 2077, and Harper, also known as Tech 49, is among the few humans stationed on the planet following a nuclear attack. Mandated to remain behind on Earth to repair unmanned drones, Cruise’s character is charged with ridding the wasteland of any remaining alien life.

Tom Cruise stars in "Oblivion" at Digiplex Theaters

Living above in Sky Tower 49, a military outpost suspended above the earth’s surface, Jack patrols from thousands of feet above extracting crucial resources after decades of war with the Scavengers, or Scavs.  Following the catastrophic destruction of the earth, Jack’s post-apocalyptic existence involves repairing remaining automated drones and patrolling for survivors who must evacuate to Saturn’s planet Titan.

Haunted by flashbacks and recurring dreams of a mysterious woman, the arrival of a beautiful stranger from a downed spacecraft triggers a chain of events that compels Jack to re-examine his life.  Jack ultimately realizes that his friends and enemies are not at all who he thinks they are and begins to question his mission and what he knows about himself. 

Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman also stars in Oblivion with Tom Cruise as a resistance leader stationed on Earth.  Melissa Leo, Andrea Riseborough and Olga Kurylenko also star in this groundbreaking science fiction action film playing in Digiplex Theaters on April 19. 

Oblivion 

Digiplex Theaters April 19

Kinderblock 66: Return to Buchenwald Film Debut ONLY at Digiplex Theaters April 12 - 18

“Kinderblock 66: Return to Buchenwald”

Exclusively at Digiplex Theaters 
April 12 – 18

A Story of Survival

On April 11, 1945, Buchenwald was liberated. Nearly 1,000 boys survived. Sixty-five years later, on April 11, 2010 several of the surviving boys from block 66 returned to Weimer and to Buchenwald.  “Kinderblock 66: Return to Buchenwald” is their story.

This profoundly moving film provides a powerful look into the harrowing experiences and the lives of the Holocaust survivors from a children’s barrack, Block 66, at the notorious Buchenwald concentration camp. 

The Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany was a Nazi slave labor camp where thousands of Jews were killed, many more were also sent to Auschwitz to die.  A large growing number of teenage European Jewish boys were being transferred to Buchenwald.  

The German Communist-led underground there made a conscious decision to protect them.  The youths did not work and were cared for and protected by the block leaders, Antonin Kalina, a Czech Communist and his deputy, Gustav Schiller, a Polish Jew.  

The leaders strove until the last days of the war to keep the boys from danger...seeing in them the hope for the future.  On April 11, 1945, Buchenwald was liberated. Nearly 1000 boys survived.

Kinderblock survivor Israel-Laszio Lazar at Buchenwald

Sixty-five years later, four of the surviving boys journey to reunite at Buchenwald to tell their story for a commemoration of the liberation of the camp by Allied forces.  The film depicts their survival while incarcerated in a Nazi concentration camp in a riveting story of good triumphing over evil.

This is the story of Naftali-Duro Furst from Czechoslovakia, Pavel Kohn of Prague, Israel-Laszio Lazar of Romania and Alex Moskovic of Czechoslovakia.  Four boys desperate to live....they survived as boys and came back as men to tell their story.

"Kinderblock 66: Return to Buchenwald" 

Digiplex Theaters April 12 - 14

 "Q&A" with Buchenwald survivor Alex Moscovic and filmmakers Brad Rothschild and Steven Moscovic on Sunday, April 14 immediately following the film screening.