New documentary chronicles Alex Peavey's cancer battle

As he prepared to step through the doorway to his doctor’s office, moments away from receiving a devastating cancer diagnosis, Alex Peavey paused, composed himself and focused on releasing tension from his body and being present in the moment.

It’s a form of meditation Peavey had done thousands of times before.

“I thought, ‘This is why I've been doing this,’” Peavey said this week. “So that I can survive this.’”

That moment was in 2017, when doctors weren’t sure if the then-39-year-old high school counselor’s remaining time should be measured in days or weeks. 

Seven years later, Peavey’s courage in the face of his ongoing battle with the terminal disease will be the focus of a documentary film set for a private premiere Dec. 22 at the Byrd Theatre. 

“We had no idea what my prognosis was but walking through that doorway on the day of the diagnosis kind of hit me pretty hard, in a good way, that the lifelong process of meditation is going to serve me throughout this challenge,” the 47-year-old Midlothian resident said. “And it absolutely has. It allows me to find my way through the hard parts so that I'm present for my family.”

What Peavey and his family – his wife, Sarah, and their middle school-age son and daughter – are dealing with is painful, powerful and, normally, private. 

Diagnosed with prostate cancer that had moved to his hips and vertebrae, and later with neuroendocrine cancer in his bladder, Peavey was told he had just a 3% chance of surviving five years.

Peavey describes himself as an introvert.

The idea of participating in the production of a film about himself wouldn’t have been something he entertained – if not for his family’s relationship with the documentary’s producer.

“I probably would have said no to anybody else,” Peavey candidly admitted.

Peavey and his family knew producer Jess Speight from Speight’s time as a student at the Collegiate School, where Speight starred on the football field, earning a scholarship to play at Michigan. By the time he graduated from Michigan, in 2020, Speight had found a new focus in documentaries.

“I love connecting with people. I love understanding the intricacies of people,” Speight said. “I realized it was my passion and my calling and 100% what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.”

Peavey, who coached basketball at Collegiate before moving full-time into counseling and also volunteering with the VCU basketball team, believed Speight’s film could help families dealing with cancer and bring more exposure to the Peavey Project, a non-profit organization that brings mindfulness coaching and mental health aid to the Richmond community.

Peavey had watched some of Speight’s earlier works, including a short film on Michigan soccer player Michael Leon’s efforts to help children in his native Ghana.

A self-taught filmmaker, Speight’s passion and empathy came through in the documentary, as it did the first time he spoke with Leon. Leon was a sophomore at Michigan in 2022, dealing with an injury that had taken some of his “spark” for the game. Seeking a way to reignite his passion to play, Leon had talked to a Michigan staffer about wanting to give back to his homeland.

That’s how he connected with Speight.

“That first time on the phone, we just bonded right away,” Leon said. “He said, ‘Why not take me home to where you got started?’ It's a hard thing to do, to show people where I started. But from our conversations on the phone I knew I could bring Jess back home and he would understand. He was willing to be a part of that.”

The two had common ground as college athletes, and Speight quickly earned Leon’s trust with the way he approached the project. 

“I told him, ‘My story is not a charity story. I’m not telling my story to have people feel bad,’” said Leon, now 23 and training for a shot to play professionally in the MLS. “My story is to inspire kids coming from where I come from that you can be whoever you want to be.’ He was like, ‘That’s how we’re going to tell it.’ He wasn’t someone just trying to tell my story. He was going along, understanding how I wanted people to know me.”

Leon saw that even more on the ground in Ghana, where Speight and a small crew chronicled Leon’s return to his village to donate to soccer teams there. Speight proved willing to abandon much of their blueprint for the documentary as fresh inspiration struck them while being there. 

He interviewed Leon’s parents and his first coach, visited Leon’s childhood home and the first fields he played soccer on.

“We really just explored his upbringing, his story, the adversity he faced, and his interest in philanthropy,” Speight said. “Why is this 20-year-old kid flying around the world to give back to his people?”

After filming his first long interview with Leon, Speight said he knew, “I’m doing this for the rest of my life.”

Speight even proved open to trying some of Leon’s favorite African meals, impressing Leon by eating fufu – a starchy food made of cassava and plantains, that they ate with their hands and dipped in soup.

For Speight, the connection to his subjects is genuine and goes on long after his projects have been completed. He vividly remembers the day he and his Collegiate classmates learned that Peavey had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, news that shook the private junior kindergarten through 12th grade school located west of the city.

It's why he expects the premiere of “In This Moment” to rival the emotional highs he experienced running out of the tunnel at Michigan’s fabled Big House.

“I think about this daily,” Speight said. “This premiere, enjoying this evening with Alex and Sarah, that is more exciting to me than any game or any crowd I've played in front of.”

For Peavey, Speight’s commitment to the story came through in the documentary.

“It was inspiring, heart warming, beautiful,” Peavey said. “Having known Jess and then having seen his work, just added to the trust.”

When Peavey tells his story, especially when he discusses the impact his disease has had on his family, his pain and passion are evident. Speight’s ability to empathetically approach the same level of passion in producing the film, Peavey said, helped the process.

“He went above and beyond anything we expected and hoped for,” Peavey said. “We put our trust in him. We had seen his work with the prior documentaries. We knew where his heart was. Having seen some of the rough cuts, he went above and beyond the mark.”

Planning for the Peavey film began over a year ago, when Speight was having a meal with two close friends in Richmond, at Bovine Burger. Between bites of duck fat wings and fries, Speight bounced his idea off his pals, who encouraged him to take the project on.

And throughout the process, Speight felt both the burden and privilege of telling the personal story of a man, and a family, he respects and cares for deeply.

He and his crew had intimate access to Peavey’s home, and even followed along to the hospital for one of Peavey’s surgeries. Peavey said he’s had over 25, though he admits, at this point, he’s lost the exact count. 

There are days when Peavey doesn’t have the strength to do much other than sleep. But there are other times, plenty of them, when he finds the zest to do all the things he loves to do with his family, going to movies, shows, dinners and sporting events.

He said the family’s post-diagnosis motto has been, “Make plans but have no expectations.”

“We put things on the calendar and then we don't expect it to happen,” Peavey said. “And then when it does, it’s really beautiful.”

On Dec. 22, Peavey plans to step over another threshold, cross through another doorway. This time, he’ll be in the Byrd Theatre, surrounded by hundreds of people, mostly friends and family, for the documentary’s premiere.