'Road 2 Sturgis' filmmaker started in Cape Girardeau

RAPID CITY, S.D. -- When Cape Girardeau native Jeremy Ford set out to make a film chronicling a rock band chasing a dream, he didn't know the experience would culminate with the realization of his own dream -- a film premiere on the big screen.

Next month Ford's film, "Road 2 Sturgis," will premiere at The Elks Theatre in Rapid City, coinciding with the world's largest motorcycle rally taking place in Sturgis, S.D.

Ford, a 1994 graduate of Cape Girardeau Central High School, started making the film last summer, following the rock band The Randall Zwarte Band across country on a tour that culminates at Sturgis. The tour was the band's dream, just as the film is for Ford.

"I made the film for middle America, not just for the people in Rapid City, but for everyone that's chasing a dream," Ford said.

The premiere is set for 7 p.m. Aug. 10. The Elks Theatre is the largest screen in South Dakota, boasting 600 seats. Rapid City is about 25 miles from Sturgis and draws many of the bikers attending the rally.

For the project, Ford followed the Zwarte Band for a year, documenting life on the road.

"They left their friends and families for the whole summer," Ford said. "Four guys in a tour bus, on the road, trying to book shows coast-to-coast."

Even though "Road 2 Sturgis" is a documentary, Ford said it has the feel of a narrative film, telling the story of the band with human interest and without documentary-style voice-overs.

"The audience goes on the journey with the band," said Ford.

Ford's own road to Sturgis has been over a decade in the making. He left Cape Girardeau after graduating on a cross-country scholarship to University of Tennessee -- Martin, went to school in Chicago and ended up in Los Angeles studying film and working for MTV.

"This film kind of exemplifies my life as to where the film is about a group of guys chasing a dream," Ford said. " It's like my life growing up in Cape Girardeau. I had a dream to work at MTV and to have a film debut on a big screen in a theater."

Now Ford's film is set for a September screening in New York's Times Square and a late August screening in Los Angeles, Ford said. A distribution deal is also in the works, but before the deal goes down Ford hopes to screen the movie in his hometown, possibly in August.

Ford's family hasn't seen the movie yet -- he wants to wait until they can see it on a big screen. But they do know of the project. His big brother, Jeff, who lives in Jackson, thinks it's great that his sibling has realized his dream.

"It's nice for me to see my brother do well, but it's huge for him," said Jeff Ford.

msanders@semissourian.com

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