Private Project

Take Your Dream

A 2400km journey of hope down Australia's longest river. A father and his two sons take a daring adventure down the River Murray to inspire the youth of Australia and bring awareness to the high rate of suicide.

  • E W Helmick
    Director
  • E W Helmick
    Writer
  • Mafia Pasta Films
    Producer
  • Way Out West Pictures
    Producer
  • Rick Herrmann
    Producer
  • Rich and Marion Espenson
    Producer
  • Takoda Shane
    Key Cast
    The Last Cigar on Earth
  • Brittany Charboneau
    Key Cast
    Speak Softly
  • Hawley Penfold
    Key Cast
    Our Souls at Night
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Feature
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 38 minutes 55 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 9, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    90,000 AUD
  • Country of Origin:
    Australia
  • Country of Filming:
    Australia
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    iphone SE, GoPro, Iphone 7
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Olympus Film Fesitval
    Los Angeles, CA
    United States
    August 10, 2019
    Best Inspirational Film
  • Milestone Worldwide Film Festival
    Battapaglia
    Italy
    August 21, 2019
    Best Documentary
  • Diamond Film Awards

    Best Editor
  • Docs Without Borders
    Nassau, DE
    United States
    June 16, 2019
    Exceptional Merit
  • Calcutta International Cult Film Fesitval
    Bengail
    India
    July 13, 2019
    Outstanding Achievement
  • Great Lakes Christian Film Festival
    Buffalo, NY
    United States
    July 30, 2019
    Australian Continental Award
  • World Open Water Swimming Association
    San Francisco
    United States
    Nominated Offering of the Year
  • Accolade Global Film Competition
    La Jolla, CA
    United States
    August 20, 2019
    Award of Recognition
  • Royal Starr Film Festival
    Royal Oaks, MI
    United States
    September 7, 2019
    Official Selection
  • Tylerman Films
    Wheaton, ILL
    United States
    August 25, 2019
    Official Selection
Director Biography - E W Helmick

A 5 time award-winning screenwriter, chef, firefighter, swift water rescue swimmer, heavy equipment operator, actor, producer, director...it's passion and the impossible that drive E W to a lifestyle of the extreme. "Anything is possible if you set your mind to it."

Told that he was too old and untrained to swim a river...
- he did it!

Told he didn't have the money or the know how to make a movie...
- he did it!

Told you can't mix narrative and documentary,
- he did it,

...and the finished product is an epic drama of adventure, humor, and passion that will have you crying and cheering!

A father of 5, married to his beautiful bride for 35 years, founder of Help World Tour, E W travels the world encouraging others to find their passion and inspire one another.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Story, story, story - we drive it into our soul so we don’t deviate from a good one when we see it. I’ve been writing screenplays for 30 years and it’s all about story. On the making of Take Your Dream, incredibly dramatic days and unseen moments of adventure unfolded right before our eyes. I was frantic trying to get my head out of what I knew about writing good story and get my heart into what was occurring right before my eyes. “I didn’t write that,” I would say. “But damn, I wish I had!”

“No one will make your dreams come true. Life is not a fairytale. If you want it, you have to take it.”

My first experience as a director was in high school. Some friends and I borrowed the school’s broadcast camera and headed out to a nearby lake in Colorado to shoot a war scene for a film I had scripted. At the end of the day we wanted to see what we had shot, but didn’t have any equipment to preview the tape. We drove to a nearby mall where there was an electronics and television store, walked in and handed the salesman the tape and asked if he could play it for us. He put the tape into a machine and turned our film onto what was to be the first big screen box televisions. I was hooked! Just look what we had done with a few smoke bombs, ketchup and gear purchased from a local army surplus store. I was a filmmaker...and in big trouble.

During one of the shots the camera panned across the sky and directly into the sunlight, which apparently wasn’t real good for those types of lenses back then. It left a shadow like crack on the lens.

I barely graduated from high school because I found it difficult to be in a classroom. Most of my time was spent in the movie theaters without my parent’s knowledge. Movies were cheap back in those days and I loved to sit for hours and hours and watch them. Give me a story with hope or redemption and you’ll have my attention.
E W Helmick, Director