--- title: Batkid Documentary Trailer description: The trailer for Batkid Begins, a documentary about the time San Francisco turned into Gotham to make a cancer patient's dream come true canonical: https://time.com/3052858/batkid-documentary-trailer/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-29T18:59:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T08:57:57.299Z og:title: The Trailer for the Batkid Documentary Will Make You Cry og:description: The IndieGoGo campaign is halfway to its funding goal og:url: https://time.com/3052858/batkid-documentary-trailer/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta884aa40c6c423d3/69869da5e53aba3ebd4d3c8b/batkid.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: batkid og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Trailer for the Batkid Documentary Will Make You Cry twitter:description: The IndieGoGo campaign is halfway to its funding goal twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta884aa40c6c423d3/69869da5e53aba3ebd4d3c8b/batkid.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Trailer for the Batkid Documentary Will Make You Cry > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=e55b52ca-4d16-40c4-938a-1e4c36a1b09a&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Batkid Begins - Official Trailer [Watch (HLS stream): Batkid Begins - Official Trailer](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/E9G8lJLd.m3u8) (3:18)  _Published 2014-07-29. Batkid Begins - Official Trailer_  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Jul 29, 2014 6:59 PM UTC  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Jul 29, 2014 6:59 PM UTC Here’s the trailer for [_Batkid Begins_](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/batkid-begins)_,_ a documentary about the time San Francisco became Gotham for a day to fulfill 5-year-old cancer survivor Miles Scott’s dream of becoming Batman on November 15, 2013\. The campaign was created to raise money to produce a soundtrack and special effects for the film, directed by the Emmy Award-winning director Dana Nachman. The crowd-funding effort is about half way to its funding goal before the funding period ends on August 19, 2014. **MORE:** [On The Scene with Batkid, The Most Adorable Superhero The World Has Ever Known](http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/11/15/on-the-scene-with-batkid-the-most-adorable-superhero-the-world-has-ever-known/) **WATCH:** [The Inspiring Make-A-Wish Recap of #SFBatKid](http://newsfeed.time.com/2014/01/15/watch-this-inspiring-make-a-wish-recap-of-sfbatkid/) ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] He's always liked all superheros, but he always comes back to Batman. Because his was first, you know, like first love. Now they called me in. Absolutely in histerics just screaming and cry'n and said Miles has Luekemia. She's was diagnose in April and that's when we start rolling and get in busy planting. The whole town came together and all other farmers chipped- in [ MUSIC ] One of his doctors told us that with his disease they just become like a fighter, you know, they have to be. They fight for life and so I think he sees the good versus evil battle in super heroes and just relates to it. [ MUSIC ] We waited until the end of treatment. He was almost finished to make his wish. When we're going about doing a wish, it is whimsical. And thinking about what would wow that child, give them an experience. That gives them a little bit of their childhood back that's been robbed. So we decided to turn San Francisco into Gotham City. The city is expecting thousands of people to participate. There's panic at every turn or every phone call going, who's calling? Adam West on line one. Okay. Right. That's normal. [ LAUGH ] [ MUSIC ] [ NOISE ] The scale of this production. It's huge. It's remarkable. The adventure has become an internet craze and the Tweets are non- stop. What did we get ourselves into. I'm like, okay well he needs a car seat because there are a lot of cops around. People were going nuts. I mean seriously, it was, like ,. Like just Brad Pitt just walk out I was like, why, there he is! [ MUSIC ] She gave everybody license to just be a little absurd, a little ridiculous, lift their little dreams for a little bit, [ MUSIC ] One thing that struck me was how many people were holding up signs saying, save us Batkid. And I looked at those signs and I thought, you mean that literally. In helping him to live this dream we were saving ourselves. We wonder why we're not happy alone at the time. And it's because we forget the sort of. 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