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Nobody is the first documentary feature film for its creators, Lance Murphey and Alan Spearman.

Murphey, 43, and Spearman, 33, both are full-time photojournalists for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tennessee. Their photography has been published worldwide, and they collectively share dozens of national photojournalism awards.  Murphey has twice been Scripps Howard Photographer of the Year and Spearman was recently inducted into the Scripps Howard Hall of Fame.

After being introduced to Jerry Bell by Coast Guard Lt. Dale Folsom, the filmmakers spent five years filming and editing the sixty-six minute documentary film entitled Nobody.

Nobody is about Jerry Bell, a heart-broken steelworker, who paddled away from trouble in an eight-foot inflatable canoe on a quest for freedom. He finds it – but pays the ultimate price.

The filmmakers’ curiosity about Jerry’s past and the circumstances which drove him to leave home led to numerous trips upriver and to Jerry’s hometown of Marion, Indiana. As relatives and friends revealed the circumstances of Jerry’s departure, Jerry was busy chasing his demons downriver. The original concept for a short film grew into a 66 minute documentary and nearly five years later, the film Nobody was completed.

Visits to Jerry’s camp deep in the woods on the outskirts of downtown Memphis were punctuated by bouts of poison ivy (for Lance), chiggers and the threat of West Nile Virus, none of which disturbed Jerry in the least. At one point the filmmakers filmed a scene aboard a boat engulfed in flames. At another, Spearman and Jerry were nearly sucked into a Mississippi River whirlpool the size of a Volkswagen. The filmmakers helped Jerry however and whenever they could – even clothing him after the banks of his camp collapsed into the Wolf River swallowing most of his belongings.

Using a single Sony PD 100 digital camera the filmmakers begged and borrowed boats, helicopters and recruited fellow photographer Tom Busler to build a unique camera rig dubbed the "Buslercam," to complete the film.