Milton native explores triumph and trauma of CFL icon in documentary

Football fans anticipating a feel-good trip down memory lane of Andrew Harris’ successes be forewarned.

They’re in for so, so much more.

“I think it’s a really engaging watch, but it’s something that makes the viewer uncomfortable at times,” said native Miltonian Taylor Prestidge of his recently-released third feature-length documentary, Running Back Relentless – an unfiltered, emotionally-charged odyssey of the CFL icon, with plenty of highs and lows along the way. “But I believe it makes the viewer feel all the emotions that humans feel, and to me that means I’ve done my job.”

Having known the local filmmaker for over a decade and worked with him on a shorter TSN special in 2018, Harris offers a level of trust and vulnerability that’s arguably unmatched in the world of pro sports. 

Childhood trauma, substance abuse, depression, fear of failure – the four-time Grey Cup champion holds nothing back.

“It was emotionally tolling for him, to an extreme degree,” said Prestidge, a Bishop Reding Secondary School graduate who now runs Upper Canada Films, which has also produced Hi, My Name is Dicky (Richard Clune story) and Wick: The Hayley Wickheiser Story. “To Andrew’s credit, what he did in allowing us access to his world and opening up in a way he’s never done before or really any athlete for that matter has ever done before is highly commendable.”

The documentary, he admitted, was originally intended to be more of a behind-the-scenes, 24/7 look at a living legend. It evolved into an “exploration of the human experience of a high performance, super-elite athlete, stripping it down in a way that becomes emotional and relatable.”

“Unlike scripted films, anything can happen and you’re at the behest of the subject to determine the pacing and essentially they’re going to reveal the themes to you over the course of filming.”

Now available on most major streaming platforms – including Apple TV and YouTube Movies – Running Back Relentless holds ties to Milton beyond its creator.

Contributing secondary camera and post-production work to the project was Prestidge’s childhood friend and fellow Miltonian John B. Challinor III, while many of the interviews with Harris were shot at John Tonelli Sports Centre.

“It felt right to film the most integral parts of the film in the arena I spent my childhood and teenage years and an arena that’s still right around the corner from my mom and dad’s house,” said Prestidge.

Furthermore, much of the documentary’s scoring comes courtesy of the locally-based ban The Tuesday Nighters, who include the filmmaker’s alter-ego Franco Goldman.

“You’d have to ask him about that,” said a sly Prestidge.

The director/producer had an eye towards traditional sports journalism until his final year at Mohawk College, when a documentary class – specifically a look into the making of Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man – sparked intrigue into long-form storytelling.

And for someone who’d grown up with a love for both sports and the arts, feature-length films seemed like the ideal path.

“I think in many ways people view arts and sports as two totally separate things, and I don’t think it has to be that way,” said Prestidge, an occasional guest contributor to The Hockey News who played both high-level hockey and football as a teen, and took to the stage in school plays. “I always wanted to pursue both those things, because it’s what I’m most passionate about, and if I don’t have passion I think it reflects in the work.

“It’s (making documentaries) great because it quenches the thirst of both of those desires I have.”

The native Miltonian feels making documentaries also satisfies an “insatiable yearning to connect with others on a deeper level” – the depth of which was discovered during his final year of high school.

Just three weeks before graduating as valedictorian at Bishop Reding, he lost one of his best buddies – among two soccer players killed in a car wreak that shook the school community – and had to say goodbye to other friends and family members around that same time.

“I was surrounded by loss. The self reflection that came from that made me re-shift the way the rest of my life was going to go. It really made me appreciate how precious life is and made me think I have to put everything I can into everything I do.”

The path forward included – of all things – a stint with Second City’s famed comedy program, where Prestidge believes the best education for his current career was forged.

“They teach you the rhythm of a story and how to always continue to hook your audience, even in a long-form story. That you need to continually keep them engaged all the way through.

“It’s something I try to implement in what I do.”

That often means some tough decisions when it comes to sifting through the seemingly endless amount of material (interviews, game footage, etc.) that comes with a project like Running Back Relentless.

“You have to ask yourself, does this move our story along? You have to be ruthless in the edit process of storytelling,” said Prestidge, who credits his Upper Canada Films team for pushing him to think outside the box and go where the project demands.

While each project is extremely unique, Prestidge stressed there’s on prevailing necessity to them all.

“It’s very important to make the subjects relatable to the viewer. Otherwise they won’t become emotionally tied.”