Matthew Modine, Sean Astin and Cynthia Kaye McWilliams star in the powerful uplifting journey “Hard Miles”.

A strong-willed social worker at a youth facility assembles an unlikely cycling team of juvenile convicts and takes them on a transformative 1000-mile bike ride.

“Hard Miles” tells the uplifting true story of the bicycling team at Rite of Passage’s RidgeView Academy, a medium-security correctional school in Colorado. The film follows beleaguered coach Greg Townsend (Matthew Modine) as he rounds up an unlikely crew of incarcerated students for a seemingly impossible bike ride from Denver to the Grand Canyon.

As the beginner bicyclists battle heatstroke, speed wobbles, and the greatest enemy of all cyclists — a chafed crotch — they must learn to stop fighting and ride together as a peloton. The bicycle serves not just as a means of transportation, but as a test; a way for each of these young men to see what they are truly capable of, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

As caring social worker Haddie (Cynthia Kaye McWilliams) attempts to be the voice of reason, coach Greg Townsend pushes the boys to their limit, and cracks begin to form in the peloton.

Ultimately, Greg’s words will ring hollow unless he can apply his coaching advice to his own life and make amends with his dying father. In the sweltering desert, the boys reach a crossroads and must decide whether to continue down the path of least resistance or take agency of their futures and pave the way to forgiveness.

“Hard Miles” will be shown at the Mary D. Fisher and Alice Gill-Sheldon Theatres April 19-24. Showtimes will be Friday, April 19 at 4:00 p.m.; Saturday, April 20 at 12:30 p.m.; Monday, April 22 at 4:00 and 7:00 p.m.; and Wednesday, April 24 at 7:00 p.m.

Tickets are $12, or $9 for Film Festival members. For tickets and more information, please call 928-282-1177. Both the theatre and film festival office are located at 2030 W. Hwy. 89A, in West Sedona.