MADISON – Greg Gard put his hand on Jerell Moore’s shoulder at the front of the theater on the west side of Madison.
The 19-year-old Moore was next to his father’s longtime colleague nearly seven years after a drunk driver’s tragic collision that irreversibly changed former Wisconsin player and assistant coach Howard Moore’s family.
“Doesn’t he look like his dad?” Gard said to obvious applause of a crowd that included Howard Moore’s friends, former players, colleagues and family.
It was just one of many heartfelt moments from that evening as the “A Road at Night” documentary began its one-week theater run at Marcus Theatre’s Point Cinema. The showings are a key part of the ongoing effort to keep Moore’s story – and lessons that can be taken from the 2019 tragedy – at the forefront of people’s minds.
“We live in such a fast news cycle, 24-hour news cycle,” Gard said ahead of the theater run. “Within 10 hours or so, they’ll forget about who we played yesterday. But that tragedy can’t get lost in yesterday’s news cycle. … We don’t want to let this story die.”
The one-week theater run lasts through Feb. 19, with all proceeds going to Moore’s ongoing care. It began with a premiere screening on Feb. 12. The showings over the weekend also will include various panel discussions, and the Feb. 18 showing at 5:50 p.m. will include an opportunity for photos and autographs with the Wisconsin volleyball team beforehand.
The 73-minute documentary delves into Howard Moore’s family and the collision that killed Moore’s wife and daughter and injured his son and himself. The former UW assistant, who was in attendance for a pre-showing reception, remains disabled after a heart attack that followed the crash.
Early scenes drew laughter during the theater premiere as the film captured who Moore was before the crash. It did not take long for that laughter to turn into sniffles as it artfully articulated the tragedy of the 2019 collision, the consequences of drunk driving and challenges of life since then for Moore and those closest to him.
“The intention isn’t to make people cry,” said John Roach, the director of the film. “I think any emotion that you have has to be authentic and not manipulative and false. And I think it’s working because we worked to keep authentic, but we didn’t dodge the issues or the grief or the sorrow either.”
As Roach showed the saddening-yet-inspiring film at various film festivals, he heard from attendees who have lost loved ones to drunk driving. Similar stories “pop up in the newspaper every week,” but this also shows “what happens to the family downstream.”
“This film – and honestly Howard’s suffering and perseverance – it makes you linger on the consequences instead of saying, ‘Oh, they sent that guy to prison,’” Roach said. “But it doesn’t matter who’s in prison. That family has to live with it still. And if we accomplish that, maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe some good will come from it.”
At the same time, Roach “didn’t want to demonize that young woman” who died in the crash as well. She had a blood alcohol content level of 0.207 – more than twice the legal limit in Michigan – according to toxicology reports.
“Her family had loss,” Roach said. “We tried to reach her family… But taking Howard’s cue, where he offered a prayer for her, we didn’t want to demonize her. She didn’t go out that night wanting to kill a family.”
Jerell Moore, Howard’s son who survived with relatively minor injuries, now is a sophomore at Edgewood College. He is studying marketing and finance with goals of being a private real estate investor so he can give back to the community.
He hopes that people leave theaters with “more of a heightened awareness of drunk driving and safe driving and protective driving” along with perseverance – a trait he has impressed others with throughout his teenage years.
“It’s amazing – that after everything that he’s been through and everything that he’s seen – that he’s able to still flourish and thrive and be successful,” said Rashard Griffith, the former UW great and a teammate of Howard Moore.
Roach is hoping that a successful theater run in Madison could then lead to theater runs in other markets such as Milwaukee and Chicago. (UW obviously has an outsized alumni presence in Milwaukee, and Chicago is where Moore and many of his teammates grew up.) He also is aiming for a streaming deal.
The more opportunities that the documentary has to make money at the box office obviously means more money for Moore’s continued care. Maybe even more importantly, that would mean a wider audience that hears the message about the consequences of impaired driving.
“This is not delusions of grandeur, but if just one or two kids see this and make a better decision, that’s some love to Jen and Jaidyn and Howard,” Roach said.
The story itself is so tragic that Gard described it as “something you see in a movie that’s made up by Steven Spielberg.”
“But that family is as courageous and as strong as any people I’ve ever met on Earth,” Gard said the day before sharing a panel with Howard’s son Jerell. “And they’ve tried to take what was such a horrific, horrendous event and time in their lives and tried to, in any way possible, spin it to a positive to help others. And it’s a great lesson for all of us.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Documentary on Howard Moore keeps lessons from tragedy in spotlight
Reporting by John Steppe, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
