Batkid Is Getting A Documentary, Just In Case You Weren’t Done Crying Yet

In November last year, the Make A Wish Foundation sent out a plea: they needed people to help transform San Francisco into Gotham City so that five-year-old Miles, in remission after three years of Leukemia, could become Batkid for the day.

The plea was picked up by a blog, struck a chord with the internet, and took on a life of its own. The foundation was flooded with offers of help: costumers, actors, the loan of a black Lamborghini, and thousands of volunteers.

After San Francisco’s Police Chief gave an emergency press conference broadcast directly into Batkid’s hotel room, an actor dressed as Batman took Miles’ hand, and drove him in a Batmobile through the transformed city. The Foundation had hoped for a couple hundred supporters to line the streets, but 10,000 people showed up to cheer BatKid on.

For a boy who came from a small farming town of a thousand, that was basically the whole world.

Photo: @SFWish: Here he comes!!!! #SFBatkid pic.twitter.com/1oEgexVj3I… http://t.co/l8WKSpDv2E

— janelle noble (@mkdmnsr) November 15, 2013

Batkid saved a damsel in distress, thwarted a bank robbery, captured the Riddler, and was awarded the key to the city. Batman comic book artist Graham Nolan tweeted out a special drawing commemorating the occasion, and Miles even made the front page of the Gotham City Chronicle — a special edition of the San Franciscan daily.

And, yes, Obama got involved.

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The story had everything the post-Upworthy internet was made for, and the internet, predictably, lapped it up. To examine the hows and the whys, a crowd-funded documentary is being made — and the trailer, released overnight, will probably make you cry.

BatKid Begins is the sponsored project of Moving Train, an non-profit organisation that funds documentary films. It’s just reached over half of its $100,000 goal on Indigogo; to read more about the film or to donate, head here. And to donate to Make A Wish Australia, head here.