Rob Shaver is a 49-year-old retail worker who recently had a streak of running at least 1 mile every day for three years. He’s also been living with Stage 4 bone and lung cancer for more than 20 years.

Shaver’s commitment to living in spite of illness is chronicled in the short film The Life We Have, which uses his life as a lens through which to examine questions at the heart of the human experience: What gives life meaning when time feels fragile? How do we keep moving forward when suffering feels endless?   

Though profoundly sad, the film, directed by Sam Price-Waldman, is also thoughtfully inspiring. We see Shaver on his good days, running and spending time with his brother and mom. We see him on his bad days, at the hospital for chemo, or pulling out his hair at home as a result of his treatments. Smiling on the road. Crying at the kitchen table. It’s a quiet film, built on moments of happiness and hardship. 

Perhaps one of the most surprising aspects of the project is that it’s produced by REI, and Shaver works at the outdoor retailer’s San Antonio store (as do his mother and brother). Up until now, The Life We Have has been screened only at film festivals, but on February 18 the brand is launching the film on its website and YouTube channel.

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Paolo Mottola, divisional VP of brand marketing at REI, says Shaver and his store manager just cold-called him a few years ago. They liked what REI Studios, the brand’s content division, had been doing and thought they had a story to tell. 

While REI Studios has done more traditional outdoors action-based work, it’s also produced more narrative-based work like Frybread Face and Me. Executive produced by Taika Waititi, the comedy-drama is about a boy who spends a summer with his grandmother on a Navajo reservation. REI Studios also put out Canary, a documentary feature that follows adventurer and climate scientist Lonnie Thompson. 

“We want to tell human stories that people can empathize with and resonate with,” says Mottola. “This story [The Life We Have] isn’t about achievement or accomplishment in the traditional outdoor sense. This is an achievement and an inspiration by someone doing something really, really hard in a hospital bed, or getting out of their own bed to just jog a mile. It’s about that connection to each other and that connection to the outdoors and how we’re better people for that.” 

© Fast Company