University of Redlands Student Cody Unser Documentary Run to Start Today in L.A.

ENCINO, Calif., April 17 /PRNewswire/ --

Where: Laemmle's Town Center 5, 17200 Ventura Blvd., Encino

When: April 17, screening at 3 p.m. VIP and remarks following at 4 p.m. Pioneering female race car driver Lyn St. James will be in attendance.

What: Premiere screening of "CODY," the inspiring story of University of Redlands senior Cody Unser (http://www.redlands.edu/4653.asp). Narrated by Glenn Close, the film tells the story of Unser who was struck with Transverse Myelitis at age 12 and left paralyzed.

*Screenings will be held in L.A. through April 23. After its L.A. run, the film will be going to New York's IFC Center starting May 1.

Cody Unser, the daughter of legendary race car driver Al Unser Jr., will graduate from the University of Redlands in a few short weeks after crafting a degree in biopolitics through the school's innovative Johnston Center for Integrative Studies, where students work with faculty members to design their own degrees.

When Cody was 12, her breath went short and her legs numb during a school basketball game. It hit fast, and left Unser, of Albuquerque, paralyzed from the chest down. However, she refused to let that diagnosis define her and at 13 founded the Cody Unser First Step Foundation to ensure that money would be raised to find a cure. For the last five years, Cody has lobbied state legislatures and Congress to push for stem-cell research, which offers the key to her own recovery.

During the film, Cody shares her determination to walk again. The documentary, filmed in part at the University of Redlands, takes the viewers on an intimate journey with Cody detailing her daily emotional and physical struggles. The documentary maps the intersection of science and politics.

Visit www.cufsf.org to see the trailer.

The documentary is produced by the Emmy-award winning Christopher Productions (http://www.christopherproductions.org) and The Cody Unser First Step Foundation (www.cufsf.org).

Cody Unser said, "I hope my story will shed some light on what it is really like to live with paralysis. I also hope that the film will lead to more research dollars so that paralysis--not just for me, but for all people, will become a treatable and reversible diagnosis."

Friday April 17- Thursday April 23, 2009

Laemmle's Town Center 5

17200 Ventura Blvd, Encino, CA 91316

818-981-9811

Friday May 1- Thursday May 7, 2009

IFC Center in New York

323 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10014

(212) 924-7771

The University of Redlands is a private liberal arts and sciences university, consistently ranked among the best universities in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Since its founding in 1907, the university has been committed to a mission that emphasizes academic rigor, personal development and interdisciplinary studies. In the residential College of Arts and Sciences, 2,400 graduate and undergraduate students pursue innovative liberal arts and sciences programs and practical pre-professional paths.

SOURCE University of Redlands

RELATED LINKS
http://www.redlands.edu/4653.asp
http://www.christopherproductions.org
http://www.cufsf.org