Sam Price-Waldman’s The Life We Have will knock you out.
I will admit that I didn’t quite know what to say when I hopped on the line with the filmmaker to speak about his documentary short. He introduces us to Rob Shaver, a man on a personal mission to run a mile every day despite his latest cancer diagnosis, but Rob has been living with illness for almost his entire life. Price-Waldman’s touch is delicate and generous. The Life We Have wears its humanity on its sleeve with magnificent aplomb.
Rob Shaver’s face will make an impression, and I’m not even speaking about his bushy, peppered beard. It’s his eyes. They almost glimmer as he speaks about his family and all the rounds of treatment he has endured. His voice trembles. ‘I should’ve died years ago,’ he says when we first meet him. There’s something so matter-of-fact about how he says it that you don’t know what to say, but, then again, what can you say?
I couldn’t help but think about the circumstances around Rob’s running. How each day he gets up, puts on his running shoes, and greets the day no matter what the weather is like or how he is feeling. We run alongside Rob a few times throughout Life, but there is one brief shot of his shadow on the ground as we run behind him. Does Rob feel like he is running from something? Towards something? I imagine his lungs filling with air and it expelling from his mouth and how that air motivates step after step. He says that he will run a mile every day until the day he dies, and you can’t help but think about how his body feels every second of Price-Waldman’s piece.
The filmmaker also reveals what it was like to structure this film, because of the amount of time that he spent with Rob and his family. Rob’s mother, Paula, and his brother, Rich, are very featured throughout this film, and Price-Waldman explains why humor is so important to a narrative like this. There is a scene where the family debates on how to scratch the belly of the family pooch. It’s not humor for humor’s sake but an interaction that some directors would normally ignore. Sometimes we see Paula running with her son, and she tells him to take his time or walk at his own pace.
Above all, The Life We Have is a very present film–I even tell Price-Waldman that I couldn’t help but think about how it’s Have and not Has or Had in the title. Rob’s life is full of love and determination, and we even hear a gorgeous rendition of “Bring Him Home” from Les Misérables that will make you listen to that famed ballad in an entirely new way.
It’s difficult to describe the feelings you feel after watching The Life We Have because its emotions crash over you so fully. There is a moment where Rob dumps a bag full of marathon medals on the hallway floor. They land together with a dull thud on the carpeted floor and he briefly describes them before placing them back in the bag. Most runners would have them on display or hanging in their room to remind them of something that they’ve accomplished. Rob’s accomplishments are all over his body, the way it moves and how his eyes consume the road ahead of him.
The last time we see Rob run, Price-Waldman places the camera ahead of him, and runs towards us. He will never stop runnng. I am thankful for the introduction, and you will be too.
