After a four-year roller-coaster ride and umpteen rejections for funding and distribution, the first-time docmakers behind the feature-length homage to 1980s directing phenom John Hughes, aptly titled Don’t You Forget About Me, finally got their just desserts.

Moments after Hughes’ unexpected but perfectly timed death in August, the little documentary that couldn’t, all of a sudden became a prized grab for Alliance Films.

‘When [Hughes] died everyone began to realize what we knew all along… how important a filmmaker he really was and what an important cultural icon he is,’ says director Matt Austin-Sadowski.

While Austin-Sadowski along with producers Kari Hollend, Michael Facciollo and Lenny Panzer aren’t celebrating their hero’s death, they are relishing the international distribution deal with Alliance that will bring their film to light on DVD before Christmas and soon after to TV screens across the country.

But, most imminently, the serendipitous deal allowed these struggling filmmakers to pay off all their debts, afford clips and stills, and complete their privately financed film.

‘We had so many doors slammed in our faces to the point that it really had to take something as huge as Hughes dying for this to happen,’ says Austin-Sadowski.

Starting in 2006 with a seed of an idea and an undying passion for John Hughes films, these tenacious and inexperienced docmakers have proved that anything is possible, even without public funding, preproduction or a binder.

Here’s how it all went down.

January 2006: Austin-Sadowski (formerly the green Power Ranger on the Power Rangers series) and Panzer (formerly a film student) meet for a beer and decide they want to make a John Hughes-style teen film, in which two screenwriters attempt to track down Hughes to direct their film.

Half a page later: They toss the idea after realizing the similarity to indie film Hooked on Scott Speedman.

Instead, they decide to turn the idea into a real documentary. After all, Hughes had pretty much fallen off the face of the earth after writing and directing some of the most important teen films of the 1980s – The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Weird Science, Uncle Buck – leaving many questions unanswered and abandoning a generation steeped in a teenage vernacular only he has ever been able to capture on film.

February 2006: Independent producer Kari Hollend signs on.

It’s agreed that the doc will track down the talent who worked with Hughes through the 1980s in an effort to create a seamless conversation about his importance to a generation and film genre.

April 2006: First official shoot at the John Hughes Film Festival at a college in Maryland, where the team discovers that young people today are just as connected to Hughes as their ’80s counterparts. The team is operating entirely on credit.

May 2006: Interviews with Ally Sheedy (Breakfast Club) in New York, Judd Nelson (Breakfast Club), Mia Sara (Ferris Bueller) and Gedde Watanabe (Sixteen Candles) in L.A. The team is working out of pocket, with their own Panasonic DVX camera and a rented mic. Hollywood agent Pam Silverstein helps wrangle talent. Credit is dwindling fast.

June 2006: First attempt to apply for Telefilm Canada funding is quickly abandoned when the team discovers that having experience is a prerequisite.

September 2006: Hollend secures some private equity from friends and family. The filmmakers start to feel on top of their game. They travel to Scotland for the Edinburgh International Film Festival, where they interview Jim Kerr from 1980s band Simple Minds, whose hit Don’t You (Forget About Me) was featured in The Breakfast Club and inspired the title for their Hughes film.

The next few months: Attempts to get interviews with Matthew Broderick, Anthony Michael Hall and Molly Ringwald are rejected or ignored despite copious and creative efforts.

February 2007: Hollend enlists U.S. agent Louise Ward to help wrangle talent. Interviews ensue with actors Andrew McCarthy (Pretty in Pink), Alan Ruck (Ferris Bueller), Annie Potts (Pretty in Pink), Hughes’ right-hand man Bill Ryan and film critic Roger Ebert.

Money is tapped out.

March 2007: Editing begins, but to no avail. Not enough footage, direction is unclear, everyone is unsatisfied.

Next few months: Film goes into a standstill. Hollend gets an interview with director Jason Reitman (Juno).

January 2008: A new editor takes a stab at the footage. Still not there.

March 2008: The team is ready to give up. Hollend is personally financing the film. They show a cut to Judd Nelson, who tells them they need to get Hughes and themselves into the film. Try for Telefilm money again, but to no avail.

June 2008: Arrive at Hughes’ doorstep in Chicago.

Rejected by the Rogers Documentary Fund. Rejected by the Canwest-Hot Docs Completion Fund.

July 2008: Alliance Films VP Mark Slone takes a fleeting interest in the film, but passes.

Lawyers begin to investigate the Copyright Act fair-use clause that could allow the filmmakers to license clips and stills at no cost, but it doesn’t apply. Their budget is now through the roof.

September 2008: Editor Frank Guidoccio (Sk8 Life) is enlisted.

October/November 2008: Everyone’s feeling good about the footage, but there’s no money left for post. Nobody can afford to work for free anymore. Clips and stills are going to cost more than $100,000. Can’t find a distributor.

Fast forward:

July 2009: Stuck. No money, all distributors have taken a pass, clips and stills are prohibitive, and the film is incomplete.

Aug. 14, 2009: John Hughes, 59, dies of a heart attack during a morning walk in Manhattan where he’s visiting family.

Within the hour of hearing the news, Hollend receives a flurry of calls from industry contacts, including distributors who had passed on the film, wanting to know its status, what the filmmakers are thinking, and asking for a meeting to discuss working together. Later that day, Alliance calls Austin-Sadowski to come in the next morning.

By the evening, there are thousands of hits to the film’s site and the press swarms the filmmakers’ doors.

Aug. 15, 2009: Alliance buys all rights to the film in a deal signed on a napkin. CNN breaks the story, followed by dozens of other media sources.

Aug. 16, 2009: The team has three and half weeks to deliver the film to the distrib. With the support of Pixel Underground, Post City Sound, Vapor Music and post supervisor Ben Barton, they work 24-hour shifts to finalize color correction, sound mix and the rest of the bells and whistles.

September 2009: Don’t You Forget About Me is delivered.

Nine lessons learned from a first-time docmaker

1.ave preproduction. We skipped that part.
2. Transcribe your footage as you go.
3. Folders. You’re gonna need them. Use them. Mark them.
4. Research what the distributors want your film delivered on. Shoot on that format and that frame rate.
5. Film everything. E-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. Even if you don’t think you’re going to use it.
6. Your first idea is generally your best.
7. A budget is never finite until the film is delivered.
8. Give everyone the same respect. (I can’t tell you how many assistants helped us get the things we needed.)
9. Never take no for an answer.