Darius Goes West
Winner of 28 film festival awards worldwide, Darius Goes West is a feature-length, nonprofit documentary that follows Darius Weems, a fifteen-year-old living with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), as he leaves home for the first time in his life. He and his rowdy crew rent an RV and set a course for California, where they hope to convince MTV to customize Darius's wheelchair on the hit show, “Pimp My Ride.”
Featured on Ellen DeGeneres, The Today Show, The CBS Early Show, ABC’s Nightline (twice), and CNN, Darius Goes West rarely seen testament to the explosive idealism of today’s youth, as well as a vivid portrayal of adventure, of brotherhood, and of the character and strength it takes to shed light on an uncertain future.
Shot in 2005, and premiering in 2007, Darius Goes West — the nonprofit film and organization — sparked a worldwide movement that galvanized hundreds of thousands of supporters to raise millions of dollars Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) research, to become wheelchair accessibility advocates in their schools and communities and to creatively celebrate and elevate Darius’s inspiring story in thousands of schools, theaters and community events throughout the world.
To date, Darius, his crew and his supporters have raised over $2.5 million for DMD research. The money has been used to accelerate promising science and research across a variety of clinical settings, including seed funding for what became the first FDA approved treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy in history.
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Darius Goes West was directed, edited and scored by Logan Smalley.
