by Julia Reischel

A local Cambridge filmmaker teamed up with a Boston-area Greyhound rescue organization to create a documentary that premiered Dec. 11 at Johnny D’s in Davis Square. 

“I like doing work for non-mainstream organizations,” said David A. Smith, the director of the twenty-minute film It’s a Long Way From There. “I have skills that they need.  And Greyhound Friends is truly an incredible organization.”

The film documents the construction of a new adoption kennel for Greyhound Friends, a non-profit group that rescues retired racing greyhounds from euthanasia by placing them into loving homes. 

At the movie’s premiere, Louise W. Coleman, the founder and director of Greyhound Friends, said, “Dave is the perfect person to do this kind of film because he’s known the whole life history of Greyhound Friends.” 

A Long Way from There is Smith’s second collaboration with Greyhound Friends. Fifteen years ago he directed a documentary called What Goes Around Comes Around that filmed adopted Greyhounds in their new homes.  In A Long Way from There, Smith revisits the organization, documenting its move from what Smith called a rundown, ramshackle kennel to a brand-new facility.

“I went out to the new kennel as it was being built and tracked its construction over the years,” said Smith. “The film is a cross-section of the process, from nothing to the finished product.” 

Greyhound Friends was formed on Mother’s Day in 1983 when Coleman, then a psychiatric rehabilitation counselor, heard that a retired racing greyhound named Boston Boy was going to be put down. 

“We went out and picked him up,” said Coleman. “I felt that it was really too bad for a dog, especially one named Boston Boy, to just not exist anymore.”

Once the word got out that Coleman was willing to save greyhounds like Boston Boy at the end of their racing careers, she was swamped with calls.  “It was fate,” she said.  “One dog leads to another to another. It became obvious that we needed a nonprofit to take care of all these dogs.”

After first keeping her rescued dogs in her small Harvard Square apartment, Coleman and her new nonprofit leased an old, 1960s-era kennel to house her charges. 

As the organization grew, the volunteers and staff joining Coleman in her mission to save greyhounds battled inconvenient and uncomfortable conditions to take care of the animals.  One winter the kennel’s well went dry, forcing the staff and dogs to get their water through a hose connected to a tanker truck parked outside. 

“It was like being on an old ship that’s sinking,” Coleman said in the movie.    

Gradually, Greyhound Friends raised enough money to pursue its dream: owning its own state-of-the-art kennel.  It purchased a seven-acre site in Hopkinton, and a bequest from Helen Rosenberger gave the group the finances it needed to begin construction in January of 2003.  Dave Smith was on-hand to watch the process from then until the finishing touches were made in September.

Carla M. DeLellis, an old friend of Coleman and the daughter of the late Johnny D., caught greyhound fever fourteen years ago.  “Louise called me up and said there’s a dog who needed to be retrieved.  Of course, then I fell in love with her before I could get her to the kennel,” said DeLellis.

Ever since, DeLellis has been an active Greyhound Friend.  “We always put something for Greyhound Friends in the Johnny D’s newsletter,” she said.  A number of people who come to Greyhound Friends hear about it from that newsletter, she said. 

Because of DeLellis’ support, Johnny D’s hosted the documentary’s premiere on December 11^th.  A crowd of Greyhound Friends staff, volunteers, and supporters packed Johnny D’s that night, eager to see themselves, their dogs, and their new kennel onscreen. 

Smith’s film began with a montage of construction footage set to a rousing score, and then followed Coleman on tours through the old kennel on the day it was set to be bulldozed and the new kennel as construction neared completion.  Staff members spoke about their feelings about Greyhound Friends, greyhounds in general, and how glad they were to finally inhabit a “fully legitimate” facility.

The end of the movie focused mainly on the dogs themselves as they cavorted in their new kennel and hammed it up for the camera.  “During the filming,” said Smith, “one of the dogs got interested and leapt up right into the lens.  He left a big nose print right on the center of the lens.”  The resulting shot closed the movie, drawing giggles from the audience.   

Coleman estimates that in the past twenty years, Greyhound Friends has saved somewhere between 7,000 and 9,000 dogs from destruction.  In addition to saving the lives of individual dogs, Coleman said that Greyhound Friends also works to change the greyhound’s image. 

“If thousands of golden retrievers were killed every year, there would be a huge outcry,” Coleman said. “But greyhounds are hardly ever seen un-muzzled, and in many places, like Ireland, they are not seen as pets at all.” 

Coleman said that though selling greyhound merchandise and educating the public, Greyhound Friends attempts to change the image of the breed.  “We want it to become a more mainstream sort of dog,” she said. 

The construction of a new kennel was a part of that mission, Coleman said.  In the movie, she discusses how the perception of greyhounds changes depending on how they are presented, right down to whether they are wearing a nice collar.  “Having such a beautiful space helps because people will see the dogs as a part of something lovely,” she says.   

No one in Johnny D’s needed to be convinced of that.   

“They’re great dogs to have in the city, and great busy-people dogs,” said DeLellis.  “You can’t go anywhere without people asking you about them.  Old timers will walk by and joke, ‘I lost money on that dog.’” 

“When I first saw Louise with greyhounds, she had four in her house,” said Smith.  “They would just cover the chairs and couches.  They’re big cats.  Big, sweet animals.”

“My favorites are what I call ‘the gentlemen,’” said Coleman.  “They’re four to five years old, they’ve worked hard, and they are very grateful.” 

Sandra L. Jepsen, Greyhound Friends’ kennel manager, said, “Their eyes—they just get you.  There’s just something there.” 

Coleman hopes that the movie will be a useful fund-raising tool for Greyhound Friends. “It helps a lot to be able to send something with a grant proposal,” she said. 

“It’s a two-edged sword,” said Smith.  “It speaks well of an organization that’s been around for a long time, but people will see this wonderful new facility and think that we don’t need any more money.”