At first glance Darius Weems looks like any other young person. But when one learns about his story and watches a documentary he made about traveling west, they learn more about the issues he faces as a person living with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, one of the nine different forms of the regenerative disease.
Weems’ documentary ‘Darius Goes West’ was featured during a philanthropic event benefiting MDA and hosted by Kappa Alpha Order, Jan. 27 in the Hughes-Trigg Theatre.
‘Darius Gone West’ tells the story of a 15-year-old Weems who has Duchennes. Weems leaves Athens, GA and travels to Los Angeles in hopes of having his wheelchair pimped out by West Coast Choppers the company which pimps out rides on the popular MTV show.
He said he got the idea when he was watching the MTV show Pimp My Ride, and his friends suggested “why don’t you get your wheelchair pimped out.”
So Weems, some of his friends, and their friends started to raise money so he could make a cross-country trip in order to make his dream come true.
Along the way, Weems said he learned a lot about life and about friendship. He also said he pushed himself to limits he thought were once impossible.
“I wanted people to learn that they can do anything they set their hearts out to do. They should never put limit on themselves,” he said.
In the end MTV networks decided not to pimp out his ride saying they did not want to alter his medical condition any further.
After the documentary was filmed and edited, it was entered in many film festivals and received national attention from many media outlets. The documentary won more than 28 awards at film festivals.
In 2008 Weems and his staff realized they needed to do more and decided to go on a trip to sell one million DVDs and raise money for MDA. So after securing funding the group set out in September 2008. They plan to do a year-long fundraiser to raise awareness on the debilitating disease.
Christina Zitaglio, community manager for the American Cancer Society, who was involved in bringing the event to campus said, “We want to sell DVDs obviously and raise money, but more important we want to raise awareness about Muscular Dystrophy and also about Darius’ story.”
Kappa Alpha president Trey Thigpin said: “We were able to hit many different demographics tonight, there were SMU students, people associated with area high schools and members from the community. We hit just about everyone.”
“I am very pleased with the turnout,” he said.
After the documentary there was a question and answer session with Weems and the crew of the documentary. Members of the crew also sold DVDs, T-shirts and other memorabilia to promote the documentary.
SMU advertising sophomore Christina Castaldo, said she heard about the event through friends and was very glad to be part of the event.
“The film focused on many issues, but most importantly I learned a lot about pushing yourself to the limit no matter how restricted you are,” Castaldo said.
