Film about gay adventurer’s run across ‘America’s most homophobic state’ set for world premiere
Mikah Meyer’s 'Miss Adventure' is making its way onto the film festival circuit, with a message of hope to LGBTQ kids everywhere.
Mark
Mikah Meyer ran for 172 miles from east to west across the state of Mississippi, but the film he has made about his challenge will have its world premiere on the other side of the Atlantic.
The intrepid adventurer first hit the headlines a decade ago when beginning a quest to become the youngest person to visit every U.S. national park.
Upon its completion in 2019, the “gay Lutheran kid” from Nebraska ran across his now home state of Minnesota to help launch “Outside Safe Space,” the LGBTQ inclusion initiative he created for hiking, adventure sports and other outdoors activities.
Get off the sidelines and into the game
Our weekly playbook is packed with everything from locker room chatter to pressing LGBTQ sports issues.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today
Related
Mikah Meyer is running across Mississippi for LGBTQ rights
Prompted by a vote of online supporters, the noted adventurer and advocate takes a message of inclusion to a tough room.
When the world came to a halt in 2020, Meyer asked his social media followers what they considered to be America’s most homophobic state. Voters picked Mississippi, prompting him to embark on another epic jog that lasted for the entirety of February 2021.
The route took him from the welcome sign on Interstate 22 near the border with Alabama, heading northwest to the small city of Hughes in Arkansas, just over the Mississippi River.
Sometimes wearing a rainbow tutu, Elvis jumpsuit or unicorn onesie, Meyer made himself visible on roadsides in a state that Trevor Project data shows is among the worst in the country for community acceptance, as experienced by LGBTQ youth.
A support crew documented what happened along the way and “Miss Adventure” is the result. For now, it’s a 15-minute short film, but Meyer is hoping to raise funds for a longer edit.
He’s delighted that attendees of a major outdoors event in the U.K. will be the first to see the film. “Miss Adventure” will screen on 20 and 21 Nov. at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal, Cumbria, as part of the annual Kendal Mountain Festival.
This year’s festival will be the 47th edition. It attracts more than 25,000 visitors annually and is said to be the largest of its kind in the world.
Meyer attended last year, when another documentary short about his outdoor escapades — “Canyon Chorus” — was on the program.
That film featured his college mentor, Larry Edwards, who also appears in “Miss Adventure.” Their conversations provide the meaning and context behind Meyer’s mission and their shared hope that future generations of LGBTQ people, particularly in the South, will have an easier path than theirs.
‘Miss Adventure’ will ‘scratch curiosity itch’ of new audiences
A world premiere in northern England might seem strange, but Meyer has praised the Kendal Mountain Festival for its commitment to making LGBTQ content discoverable and going the extra mile to welcome in the community.
He’s also keen to learn what audiences across the pond make of “Miss Adventure” and their perceptions of where it was filmed. The “most homophobic state” tag is one part of that, but there is also an intriguing economic angle.
“I recently heard on America’s National Public Radio that the state of Mississippi is what European countries, and other nations around the world, use to determine if their quality of life is higher or lower than the USA,” he says.
“It’s because Mississippi has the lowest standard of living of any American state. The story was about how England’s economy had just slipped below Mississippi’s.”
The NPR interview in June was with Idrees Kahloon, writer of a feature for The Atlantic titled “How Britain Became As Poor as Mississippi.”
The measurement he used was GDP per capita (or, output per person) based on the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) world economic outlook. Not surprisingly, the findings sparked considerable debate in U.K. media.
For three years of his adult life, Meyer lived in Switzerland, one of the world’s wealthiest countries. “I know that Europeans are often fascinated by what we crazy Americans are doing — as am I, and I live here!
“So I’d love to scratch that curiosity itch for Europeans by offering up “Miss Adventure” as a window into American life, through the state that their country’s economic analysts all judge their own economies by.”
Being widely screened is the main goal. A slot on the European Outdoor Film Tour would be huge, as that would take the documentary short to cities across the continent.
But it can be a tall order for films such as his to find an audience. Earlier this month, Meyer wrote of his disappointment at missing out on being selected for the Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival.
Nevertheless, he will keep putting “Miss Adventure” in the frame, knowing accolades would likely bring attention from major outdoors and media brands. “If that happens, the film could go online sooner,” he says.
Meyer is not expecting to be at the Kendal Mountain Festival in person this year, but he is hoping to make it across to the U.K. in July 2027 for the EuroGames LGBTQ multi-sport event in Cardiff, where hiking and trail running are among nearly 40 sports on offer.
Related
He’s gay, Christian and 75% of the way to exploring all 417 national parks
Mikah Meyer found out that what made him special was his sexual orientation, especially at churches.
Mikah Meyer hopes to get funding for a feature-length film
There are lots of illuminating moments in the current “Miss Adventure” edit, including chats with courageous team members of Mississippi Capital City Pride and a representative from the local chapter of the Human Rights Campaign.
They discuss the challenges they have personally faced and which LGBTQ youth in the South are still experiencing today.
Meyer says he has around 75 hours of footage and is confident that the film deserves a longer runtime. “Fortunately, I’m already having people say, ‘That was too short! I have so many questions about Mississippi I want answered! Can you make a feature?’
“I have a 95-minute assembly cut, so if I can just find a philanthropist, maybe a feature length will be coming down the pipe.”
Until then, the Kendal Mountain Festival will be the first place to witness Meyer’s extraordinary endeavor in a state where, to this day, an LGBTQ person can’t be too sure what’s around the next corner.
It’s why he wants the world to take notice of “Miss Adventure” and accompany him on the next stage of the film’s uplifting journey.
Tickets for the film festival screenings in Kendal, U.K., on Nov. 20 and 21 are on sale now.
Subscribe to the Outsports newsletter to keep up with your favorite out athletes, inspiring LGBTQ sports stories, and more.
