On September 22nd 2019, the World premier of “The Secret Marathon” film was shown at Cinefest in Sudbury, Ontario. It had been a long journey to get the film made but the goal of getting it onto the film festival circuit was finally achieved. First some background on the film.
In October 2015, I read an article about Zainab, the first Afghan woman to run a marathon in Afghanistan. It said that she had to endure verbal and physical abuse while she was training but that didn’t stop her. She went back to her home and trained by running around and around her walled garden, for hours on end. At the time I was recovering from a massive blood clot on my brain, and vowed that, if I could get better, I was going to run with Zainab in Afghanistan the following year, and support the Afghan women running for freedom and equality.
In October 2016, I travelled to Afghanistan with a film crew including Kate McKenzie who was the co-director of the film. Returning from the trip Kate worked with co-director Scott Townend and a production team to create “The Secret Marathon.” It was not a smooth road to the finished product, but three years later the movie hit the big screen.
Over the years the film has been shown at a number of film festivals including Zonta, Calgary Underground Film Festival, Kingston and Edmonton, where it won the People's Choice Best Documentary Feature. The film was then released by Demand Films and shown across Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand. But one thing that I have always dreamed of is that it would be shown on the big screen in Cochrane. Well, now it will be!
On Wednesday, June 25th at 6.30pm "The Secret Marathon" will be shown at the Cochrane Movie House. The presentation is hosted by Cochrane Cares Running Club and is a fundraiser for Classrooms Without Walls (www.classroomswithoutwalls.ca ). This organization provides on line educational opportunities for students in Myanmar, Ukraine and Afghanistan. The funds raised for this endeavour will go to support Afghan women, who are still living in Afghanistan, take their General Education Diploma (GED) tests and allow them to go onto higher education– an opportunity that is currently under severe threat.
For tickets, click: https://omniwebticketing6.com/cochrane/?schdate=2025-06-25 Please share the link with your family, friends or anyone else you know that might be interested,
Also, there are a limited number of sponsorship opportunities for the incredible event. Email me at [email protected] for more information.
“The Secret Marathon” is finally coming to Cochrane and we would love to see you there to celebrate the event.
© 2025 Martin Parnell
