Movie documents rookie musher’s Red Lantern run - Willow, AK 
‘Everything It Takes’
Musher Mary Helwig said she isn’t racing the Iditarod this year, but her rookie run will forever be on replay, thanks to Willow writer and filmmaker Jennifer Hawks.
“Everything It Takes,” Hawks’ debut film, is a full-length documentary about the 2016 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race and everything it took Helwig to get to the starting line — from rebuilding her first home after it burned to the ground in the Sockeye fire to reluctantly accepting a game-changing gift halfway along the Iditarod Trail.
“I couldn’t start small,” Hawks said with a smile, recognizing the ambitiousness of her first project.
Last week, at Helwig’s new home — just a short walk from 31-time Iditarod finisher DeeDee Jonrowe’s house — Hawks said she studied film in college, and has wanted to make a film for “decades,” but didn’t have the time or money for it. She worked as a news reporter and photographer in her home state of New York for years before trekking across the continent in search of adventure and inspiration.
That came when she moved to the Yukon Territory and in with musher Michelle Phillips, who started racing the Iditarod in 2010.