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GO THE DISTANCE

"It’s kind of like seeing the whole world on a video," says Paul Scherdell, explaining what it’s like to be a quadriplegic. That detachment is never quite breached in Bill Holloway’s short documentary, a record of Scherdell’s cross-country journey across America a dozen years after the dirt-bike accident that crushed his spinal cord. But intermixed with the superficial home-video glimpses of Niagara Falls ("Intense!") and the Pacific Ocean ("Awesome!") are some genuinely moving, sometimes oddball moments, such as when Scherdell and his friend and attendant Jeff Turner bump into strangers on the way who offer such unexpected boons as Scherdell’s first motorcycle ride since his accident (in a specially designed sidecar a biker in the Badlands designed for his paralyzed brother), or the complementary philosophies of life offered by an old hippie and a young Marine on the streets of Berkeley. Perhaps for discretionary reasons, Holloway himself doesn’t go the distance — the rougher parts of the trip seem to have been deleted. Maybe the biggest omission is any background on Scherdell’s musical ambitions — he belts out the bluesy title song with convincing pain. (video/57 minutes)

BY PETER KEOUGH

Issue Date: November 28 - December 5, 2002
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