I just got a note from Barbara Smalley, mother of Darius Goes West director Logan Smalley, that the little documentary that could (which is, as I've previously raved, one my my fave indie films of the year) won both the Best Documentary (juried) award and yet another audience award at the Sidewalk Moving Picture Film Festival, which just wrapped. I've lost track at this point of how many audience awards Darius has won, but I think it's worth noting that the film was up against some tough competition for the juried award; other films competing in that category included The Devil Came on Horseback and For the Bible Tells Me So, either one of which could end up on the Oscar shortlist.

Barbara reports that Darius Weems and twelve of his friends attended the fest, held in Birmingham, Alabama, that Saturday night's screening at the Civil Rights Institute's theater was standing room only, with people turned away, and that the film got a standing ovation at the end. When one of Darius's friends mentioned Darius had just turned 18 on Thursday, the crowd sang him "Happy Birthday." What a nice reception for a great film and a great young man.

I hope the good folks at the Academy are paying attention to this film. With the remarkable audience response it's generated at fest after fest this year, Darius Goes West deserves Oscar consideration, and I hope it gets it. If you've not yet had a chance to catch the film yourself, you have lots of opportunities coming up. The film is slated to play six fests in the near future, and also has a 14-city tour that just started. Check the film's official website to see if Darius is rolling into a theater near you, and if it is, don't miss the chance to catch it.

Get more info on Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, which Darius is fighting, right here, and on Charley's Fund, the designated charity for profits from the film, over on the Charley's Fund website.

Darius Goes West is a documentary about 15-year-old Darius Weems, who has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), a progressive and terminal illness that takes the lives of its victims in their late teens to early 20s. The film follows Darius and his 11 closest friends on a 7,000 mile RV road trip as they travel from their hometown of Athens, Georgia to California, to show Darius the world outside of Athens and, they hope, to get MTV to fix up Darius' wheelchair on the show Pimp My Ride. Logan Smalley, the director of the film and Darius' close friend, was kind enough to take time out of a busy fest schedule to talk to Cinematical about the film.

Cinematical: When did you decide you wanted to make a film out of this road trip with Darius? Was that the plan from the beginning?

Logan Smalley: I was there the first day Darius got his wheelchair at the summer camp we'd originally met at – we first met when he was five years old. I first met him through his brother Mario, who had DMD as well, and Mario was in my group. So I've known Darius since he was five. And around fifth grade, he was making the transition from a walker to a wheelchair, and it was during the summer that he was making this transition and I was there. And as his counselor at the time it was my job to help make him feel good about it. It's kind of like a kid getting glasses, times a hundred. It's a big physical change for all his peers. And it was my job to make him feel cool about it, and one of the things we thought about was putting chains on the wheels and spray-painting them, you know, make it look cool. But way before we got around to doing that, he accepted it, being in the chair. It was way easier for him to get around.

More after the jump ...

You may think you've seen all the road trip movies you'll ever want to see in your lifetime, but trust me on this: Darius Goes West is not your average road trip flick. The film is a documentary about 15-year-old Darius Weems, who has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, the most common type of MD. Duchenne is always fatal, killing the boys who have it by their late teens to early 20s. Darius watched his older brother, Mario, die of Duchenne, and he knows he faces the same fate, and yet his attitude is so positive, so sunny and bright, that other people are drawn to the infectious orbit of his radiant personality.

Darius had a dream: To have his wheelchair pimped out on MTV's Pimp My Ride, so that he can expose millions of young people in the MTV generation to muscular dystrophy, and motivate them to help find a cure for the devastating disease. But Darius wants more than that. He's never been out of the town of Athens, GA in his life, and he wants to see some of the world before he dies. So he and his 11 best friends concoct a plan: To take a roadtrip to California and back in an RV, and along the way to film a documentary about their trip, exploring how accessible to the disabled America really is.