How the Chris Norton story is getting to the screen

At the Luther College Commencement ceremonies In 2015, senior Chris Norton was one of the people getting ready to accept a diploma.  But one thing made Chris Norton very different from the other soon-to-be graduates in the Regents Center--Norton had suffered a serious spinal cord injury in a football game in October of 2010, leaving him in a wheelchair.

Doctors told him he had only a three percent chance of regaining feeling below his neck and didn't even give odds on his ability to walk again.  But at graduation, Chris Norton rose from his wheelchair and walked across the stage to accept his diploma from Luther College President Paula Carlson.

A video of that moment got posted on the Internet and went viral, getting viewed more than 300 million times.  One of the people who eventually saw that video was a documentary film producer named Katie Norris.

Norris tells decorahnews.com that when she saw the video, "I knew I had to know more...I had to know what his story is."  She contacted Norton about doing a documentary about him.  This spring Norton called her back and said he'd like her company, Fotolanthropy, to do the documentary.

This Sunday afternoon Norris and a film crew will be at Carlson Stadium on the Luther College campus to film scenes that will be used in the documentary--scenes of stadium crowds and football plays and even a recreation of the play in which Norton was injured.  She says that scene is important in showing how much Chris has gone through in the past seven years--and it was a scene Chris wanted included in the documentary.

Following Sunday afternoon's filming in Decorah, the film crew will head to the Des Moines area on Monday for two more days of filming.  Norris says the goal is to have enough video to create a trailer for the documentary that could be released on October 16th--the 7-year anniversary of Chris' accident.

But don't expect the film to be depressing.  Norris tells decorahnews.com that Fotolanthropy specializes in stories about the power of hope.  "My goal is to have people stand up from their seats and cheer when they see this," she says.

The documentary will be funded through a $250,000 Kickstarter campaign, with distribution of the final video through Netflix and other sources.  There will also be showings in movie theaters, including premieres in Dallas, Texas (Fotolanthropy's home) and in Decorah.  Norris says she's targeting a premiere in the fall of 2018.

In the meantime, community volunteers are needed for Sunday afternoon's filming at Carlson Stadium.  Wear football crowd clothing and get ready to cheer and take directions from the film crew.  It's a chance to help tell the story of Chris Norton, Luther College and the support he received from Decorah while rebounding from a spinal cord injury the doctors felt would keep him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

(See the trailer for another Fotolanthropy documentary, Travis: A Soldier's Story," by clicking here.)