Running Club Documentary On Addiction Recovery Wins Cannes & LA Film Festival Honors

The documentary from first-time filmmakers Jack and Bryan Cote on the little Boston running club for addiction recovery has won “Best Health Film” from the Cannes World Film Festival, “Most Inspiring Woman In A Film” from the Los Angeles Film Awards and was selected for Toronto’s 2025 Documentary Feature Film Festival. “The Boston Bulldogs,” an Imagine Sports Film created by The Behavioral Health Hour, follows five runners interconnected by one woman’s story from finishing the Boston Marathon after her first full year of sobriety to her relapse 24 hours later, and now her recovery 10 years later. Toronto Film Festival’s Julie Sheppard called the film “a must see” in her review. The Swedish International Film Festival is among several other festivals considering the film for best documentary feature. To view the uncut 90-minute version of the film, click here.

Background

My son Jack and I spent the better part of the last year on weekends working on the film, our first time making a movie. The film follows Meaghan on a run at the site of her first day with the club in 2014, where we talk with her sister who saw her addiction at its worst and helped her to recovery, where we interview Meaghan and her husband Conan about their relationship, their hope for their kids, and Conan’s path, and interview Ashley who talks about her low self confidence on the way to addiction and recovery and how Meaghan saved her life. We return to Meaghan and Ashley’s sober living house, and hear why the club formed from its founder, clinical social worker Mike Ferullo. The film is intended to show people in recovery in a positive, hopeful light, show what recovery looks like, providing perspective and guidance for those dealing with addiction now, their family and supporters, and for youth and families dealing with the pressures that stem from coming of age in the 2020s.

Inquiries about the film to thebehavioralhealthhour@gmail.com