A week after Geoff Hollister passed away, Wendy Hollister called We Grew Wings executive producer Ellen Devlin with an important message: that she would be fulfilling a wish of Geoff’s to donate to the documentary and to continue Geoff’s support of the project. Wendy would later decide to include We Grew Wings as one of the organizations to donate to, in honor of Geoff.
This was far from the first time Geoff offered both inspiration and assistance to the documentary about the untold story of women’s track and field at the University of Oregon. We Grew Wings co-directors Erich Lyttle and Sarah Henderson took on the project after being personally recommended by Geoff. The Emmy-award winning Erich worked with Geoff on a number of films including Fire on the Track and partnered with Sarah and Geoff on the Joan Benoit Samuelson documentary, There Is No Finish Line. Emails and meetings happened between Ellen and Geoff as the documentary developed from an idea into a story, and finally, into a film.
We Grew Wings will premiere in Eugene at the McDonald theater on June 30th and will be screening in select theaters around Portland throughout July and August. Donations to cover production and promotional costs are still being accepted and would be greatly appreciated.
