When Lee Storey, a partner in Ballard Spahr's Phoenix office, discovered that her husband had been a cast member of the notoriously peppy Up With People, she decided that it was a story that needed to be told. The result is "Smile 'Til It Hurts: The Up With People Story," a documentary that has its Phoenix-area premiere Thursday. It chronicles the group from its inception in the 1960s through its evolution into a national punch line by the 1980s.
"I wanted to be fair," Ms. Storey said, "and some say that isn't a good way to make a documentary. You're supposed to throw them under the bus and keep them under the bus. Or promote them and make a commercial. That wouldn't have been an accurate reflection or a true story. Some would say, 'You could sell more DVDs that way.' But I think (this) is a good story because it really was a slice of Americana that most people didn't see."