A story about love, friendship, and a burlap donkey

In the film “A Mile In These Hooves,” best friends and foster brothers Tom and Mark set out to break the world record for longest distance travelled on foot in a two-person outfit.

“A Mile In These Hooves” is the brainchild of Torontonian James Brylowski, who wrote, directed, produced and edited the 15-minute short film. The story takes the characters on a 4,300-km journey from Toronto to Los Angeles, Calif., in a two-person donkey costume.

“One of the brothers is fulfilling his dying mother's wish,” Brylowski said. “While on her death bed, she asks him to finish what she had started. She was about to run from Toronto to Vancouver in a two-person squid outfit, but she couldn't do it.”

Struggles along the way threaten to tear the brothers apart, providing the drama in an otherwise tongue-in-cheek tale.

It took almost a month to film “A Mile In These Hooves.” The finished product premieres at the Yorkton Film Festival on May 22-25 in Yorkton, Sask. Brylowski has been nominated for two awards: best director (fiction) and best comedy.

On his way to the festival, Brylowski, founder and president of Canadian production company Solid Porcupine Inc., stopped in various towns and cities to help promote the film.

In Sudbury, he brought the donkey costume to the Big Nickel for a publicity photo before heading back out onto the road en route to Saskatchewan.

“I have been working on this film for more than a year, and I'm eager to get it out there,” he said. “It has been my life for the last year and a half. I don't even care if I win, just to be nominated there is cool. (Yorkton is) a small town, but it's a very respected festival, and I'm excited to see what people think.”

Brylowski said he would love to have “A Mile In These Hooves” screened at Cinéfest in Sudbury, but that's a 'tail' for another time.