NOTHING EVER CHANGES

Like clockwork, pedestrians, and motorists are seriously injured or killed on PCH despite experts perennially proposing infrastructure resolutions. Michel Shane’s 21 Miles in Malibu digs deep into the problem.

✎ written by Barbara Burke

Miles in Malibu , a documentary released in late October, graphically depicts the extremely hazardous dangers on Pacific Coast Highway. The film grabs viewers’ attention with intense footage of innumerable, horrific, often fatal collisions on a thoroughfare that serves as both Malibu’s main street and a state highway. Collisions that are legion among both locals and visitors.

Collisions - and the infrastructure deficiencies that contribute to and often cause them - are the subject of many repetitive, albeit well-intended and taxpayer-funded studies by engineers and other highway design experts. Collisions that continue incessantly, unabated by the implementation of any of the recommendations in those studies, according to subjects quoted in the film, including local journalist Hans Laetz, former Malibu Mayor, Lou Lamonte, and Fireball Tim Lawrence, a local car designer, and publisher.

One of the publicly-funded studies culminated in a report setting forth 52 recommended changes to make the PCH safer, Laetz states in the film, incredulously adding, “None of those recommendations have been implemented.”

The work is a paradigm example of film activism demanding change. The documentary is produced by Malibu’s Michel Shane (Catch Me If You Can, I Robot, North Fork), who collaborated with screenwriters Nic Davis and Meredith Mantik, Executive Producer Susan Moulton and cinematographers James Suter and Joey Graziano. The gut-wrenching images of fatal collisions are brilliantly accompanied by original music composed by sound designer Abigail Rodi.

“The film provides viewers with a sense of why it is important to drive safely and of their need to always be aware of their surroundings,” Lawrence said. “It’s important that we all connect ourselves with the outcomes of how we live our lives, but also that is not enough - what we need is action.”

The film confronts the long-unaddressed dangers of PCH and unrelentingly demands for action - not merely another study. It’s a message bemoaning the senseless deaths that predictably occur like clockwork at many of Malibu’s perilous intersections and curves. It’s a message that many locals and visitors pray is heeded immediately. It’s a message that the film emphasizes could save lives.

Michel and Ellen Shane’s daughter Emily Rose Shane, 13, was tragically targeted and run down in April 2010 by a maniacal driver with a suicide wish along PCH at Heathercliff Road. The eighth grader was struck along the right shoulder of a stretch of the PCH that has been dubbed “Blood Alley,” because there are no sidewalks along that extremely busy section of highway which includes bus stops and Pt. Dume shopping center.

“Emily’s death increased my awareness of the dangerous situation along PCH,” Michel Shane said. “Producing this film was the only way I could react to her death.” He notes that Emily’s horrific passing is only part of the film’s focus, which also addresses the heartache experienced by friends and family of Marisela Echeverria, a cyclist training for the Ironman Distance Triathlon who was struck by a Metro bus and killed on the PCH in 2012.

The statistics astound, the film notes. The inexcusable lack of attempts to take seemingly simple steps to address the

EMILY AND ELLEN SHANE Emily Rose Shane and her mother, Ellen celebrated Emily’s bat mitzvah shortly before Emily’s tragic death. of the L.A. County Fire Department for over a decade, and has protected lessly championing The Emily Shane Foundation, which serves students with learning disabilities as Emily had. The Foundation provides free mentors and tutors to challenged students who struggle academically and who, without the help provided by the organization, could fall through the cracks.

The students are only asked to do one very important thing to “pay it forward,” and give back to their community, even if only in a small way. In a similar vein, Michel Shane hopes to pay it forward with the film and he hopes the work saves innumerable lives by catalyzing infrastructure improvements on PCH.

“I’d like the film to create a real movement to start change,” Shane said. “This is about awareness - Malibu is not the only town that has very risky roads. It’s a worldwide problem. If we can make people aware and get them upset, then we can create change.”

Pausing, he added, “If the politicians see that their constituents are extremely angry, they will act to keep their power.” highway’s dangers equally astounds. Measures such as reducing the speed limit, putting in protective barriers where pedestrians cross the highway, putting in medians to better divide traffic, and synchronizing lights - all solutions that other municipalities with congested traffic have successfully implemented.

The Shanes both note that when faced with such an unspeakable tragedy as losing a child, one can go into darkness - or choose the light.

They have chosen the light by tire -

Shane intends to approach the Malibu City Council to propose a community screening in hopes the film will be impactful throughout the town. On a broader scale, he intends to distribute the film nationally and internationally. Currently, the film is being distributed on the festival circuit. Shane notes that it would be ideal for high schools and instructors to use in their beginning driving curriculum.

“The film will resonate with audiences worldwide.” He said. “I would have never gone down this road but for Emily’s death.”

Hopefully, his twelve-year-long journey into the light - a long path from concept to the screen - will be instrumental in effecting changes in the PCH’s design as soon as possible.