The Runner is a life affirming true story about a man's battle to overcome mental illness, specifically depression and suicide.
Matthew Ferraro has composed, arranged and orchestrated music for everything from Academy Award winning films The Insider, The Incredibles, Emmy Winning TV shows Futurama, Dune, Olive the Other Reindeer, The Muppets and video game titles including Spiderman, X-Men, Medal of Honor, You Don’t Know Jack, to BBC and ITV television and radio productions, as well as hundreds of commercials including Gatorade, VISA, and McDonald’s among others. His music is licensed worldwide.
His multi-media symphonic/choral work "The Tension of Opposites" was deemed a new art form, "Orchestral Journalism" by the California Arts Council because of his use of pre-records as part of the fabric of his music, and his “unique ability to tell a compelling story”. –National Endowment for the Arts.
The Runner, a short film created to increase awareness and feed a healthier conversation around depression and suicide marks Ferraro’s directorial debut utilizing Orchestral Journalism in a visual documentary setting.
Ferraro is a TEDx fellow, and considered a Thought Leader in the area of creativity and the power of the arts to effect social change.
Director Statement
Suicide ought to be the most avoidable cause of death, and yet the statistics are shocking. According to the WHO’s latest estimates, it is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Every year, more people die as a result of suicide than HIV, malaria or breast cancer, or war or homicide. One in 100 deaths is caused by suicide. I have lost two family members and a best friend to depression and suicide. The Runner is our attempt to increase awareness of the problem and to feed a healthier conversation around it. Ultimately we are ambitious for it to help prevent suicides. In the short film, Adrian talks movingly about the day he found his mother’s body following her suicide when he was 15. He also opens up about his related bi-polar disorder diagnosed in his teens, following an apparent overdose. But The Runner is fundamentally a life-affirming story: a journey from darkness into light as we hear how Adrian overcomes his depression and anxiety to lead a productive life as a journalist for the BBC.