At the age of 29, Andrew Shelley sat stuck in the same predictable 9 to 5 job as his father. Looking back on his life he realized that over the years he had been watching the man he wanted to be drift away.

His diagnosis at birth of a muscular degenerative disease predetermined a large portion of his life, including the need for a wheelchair before the age of 25. His career also was inherited. Coming from a family of engineers (both grandfathers, all uncles, his father, and brother) he naturally fell into the trade with no consideration of personal happiness.

Life in a cubicle meant exchanging the extreme adventurous life he had pictured as a child, for settling with fleeting weekend getaways. It appeared that his life was whittling away day by day, along with his now-90 lb body.

Every person reaches a crossroad of whether to continue down the path on which they finding themselves or discover the courage to start down a new path that leads to somewhere better. For Andrew that time was last year when he decided to set out on a backpacking journey around the world — to New Zealand, Cambodia, India, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates  — places where a wheelchair had never been before.

The new feature length documentary, Beyond the Chair, follows Andrew and his 260-pound power chair specially equipped for off-road use.

WATCH the inspiring film trailer below… (Thanks to Jesse Gros for submitting the link!)