About the Film

At first glance, Repeter ‘Pete’ Monsanto lives a glamorous life – a celebrity photographer who works with boldface names like Meek Mill, Rick Ross, Ludacris, Nicki Minaj, Big Sean and others. But look deeper and you will see a man with father-sized hole in his life.  When he was just six years old, Pete’s father, Peter Monsanto, was arrested and convicted of racketeering and sentenced to life without parole.  Pete remembers vividly when he was just six years old and law enforcement burst into his home in the middle of the night and took his father away.  Life had been good for him before that – his family lived in the luxury that comes with being the son of a drug kingpin – courtside seats at Madison Square Garden, great clothes, etc. Although Pete Sr. was running a criminal enterprise, he was also a constant and reliable presence in his son’s life.  When you’re that young, you don’t know what your Dad does for a living, you just love him. When his dad was sent away, Pete’s life changed dramatically. His mom worked hard to hold the family together, in spite of a difficult journey that included bouts of entanglement in the shelter system.  It’s a common tale for the children of the incarcerated, for whom Pete is now an advocate. He is a board advisor for We Got Us Now – a movement built by, led by & about CoIP (Children of Incarcerated Parents).

For 32 years, Pete and his father have worked to maintain a long distance relationship, mostly by weekly phone conversations. Pete Sr. is now 69, and since his incarceration he has maintained a disciplined routine, keeping mind and body strong while running in the prison yard. Trying to be a positive force in his son’s life in spite of his criminal past and its consequences.  Pete is now the same age his father was when he was sent away.  Inspired by his father’s strength and resilience, Pete will run the 2018 NYC marathon. His participation in the 26-mile race through their hometown is the subject of a new project by Transform Films©: “Run for His Life.”

Directed by Sebastian Sdaigui

Produced by Michelle Budnick for Transform Films©

Transform Films© is a team of award-winning storytellers who believe that documentaries, long and short, have the power to change the world. We tell the extraordinary stories of ordinary people as they cope, struggle and rejoice while facing some of the most challenging issues in our society.  Recent productions include the Peabody-Award-winning Newtown (coproduced with KA Synyder Productions and Cuomo Cole Productionswhich premiered on PBS Independent Lens; The Rape of Recy Taylor (coproduced with Augusta Films) which premiered on Starz and  won the Human Rights Award at the 2017 Venice International Film Festival; Serving Life which premiered on OWN and  was made with Academy-Award-winning director Forest Whitaker; and MILWAUKEE 53206 which premiered on PBS World Channel America ReFramed and won Best Documentary at the 2017 Urbanworld Festival.

About Pete

Pete Monsanto is running the 2018 New York City Marathon because his father can’t.

Incarcerated since Pete was 5 years old, Peter Monsanto Sr., is a federal inmate serving life without parole. At 69, he has spent 32 years in federal custody.

Pete began running to connect with his father and to support social justice for his father. His participation in the 26-mile race through their hometown is the subject of a new documentary by Transform Films: “Run for His Life.”

“My dad and I don’t have many activities to connect us. He runs in the prison yard, so I’m going to run this race in honor of him,” says Monsanto.

A photographer, DJ and New York City Transit telecommunications employee who works the night shift, Pete Monsanto also speaks on behalf of the nonprofit We Got Us Now, a movement built by, led by and about children and young adults impacted by parental incarceration, which has affected more than 10 million children in the U.S.

Pete toughed it out as a kid. Now, he shares his story, employing a brutally honest approach to create dialogue around a common issue that is rarely addressed.

Pete recalls the traumatic events when federal marshals seized his boyhood home: “I came home from school one day and was homeless.”

He was three days shy of his sixth birthday when his father was arrested. Peter Monsanto Sr. was later indicted on federal drug charges and convicted of having violated the Continuing Criminal Enterprise Statute, commonly referred to as the Kingpin Statute.

This began a tumultuous period of staying with family, in homeless shelters, and with whomever would take in Pete, his mom and his two little sisters—including a stay at the notorious Emergency Assistance Unit in the Bronx, where Peter remembers sleeping on a stiff plastic chair for four days and wearing shoes that were too small.

A semblance of normalcy returned when Pete’s mother was able to move the family back to the Westchester County enclave of Mt. Vernon, where Pete was in the shelter system for ninth grade and where Pete went to high school.

Pete started working in telecommunications after high school. In 2008 he was laid off from his job at Verizon, which proved to be another turning point in his life. It spurred him to transform his photography hobby into a successful “side hustle,” an endeavor he jump-started on the set of the BET phenomenon “106 & Park.”

This period was also marked by monthly visits to the federal correctional institution in Pennsylvania, where his father was incarcerated after stints in Kansas, Texas, Florida and Georgia.

“My father was running to keep his mind and body sharp,” Pete says, “at one point doing at least five miles a day.”

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