Part One: Body
How do we visualize the interior experience of intuitive running?*
This 90-second short film will take place in the summer, and will explore the questions, ideas, and themes of:
Being a Body and having a body
Exploration of running as liberation of Body / freedom
Practicing self advocacy → advocating for time, space, the ability to be here
Moving through the world as subject vs. object.
Part One: Body
How do we visualize the interior experience of intuitive running?*
This 90-second short film will take place in the summer, and will explore the questions, ideas, and themes of:
Being a Body and having a body
Exploration of running as liberation of Body / freedom
Practicing self advocacy → advocating for time, space, the ability to be here
Moving through the world as subject vs. object.
Mood
a balance of ethereal / poetic, and physical / grounded.
The first part of this series will explore embodiment through the context of running, and will question what being embodied feels like. It will also consider that it is perhaps by embracing and honoring our physical limitations that we might find freedom in and oneness with our bodies.
Conversations around embodiment are often wrapped up in the perception of our bodies (whether it is self-perception, or someone else’s perception). Even when the emphasis is on “loving your body,” I believe the resulting understanding of embodiment has become increasingly fragmented, abstract, and disorienting.
In an effort to illustrate body (and embodiment) in a more subjective, holistic way, this piece will explore the sensations of being a body, relying on an array of abstract visuals to communicate the sensory experience of a run.
The thing that most excites me about this piece is that it will attempt to illustrate the interior landscape of a person who is traversing their exterior landscape on foot. While the internal and external experiences are linked, there is not a direct one-for-one. All this to say, this piece might feature glimpses of a person on a run, but will also contain more abstract visuals that are representative of high-level themes.
Visually, this piece will rely on the interplay between light, shadows, and various perspectives to explore a new kind of narrative around running, and to illuminate the ever-present oscillation between subject and object* we experience.
This piece will also feature a scripted voiceover, putting voice to the ideas and themes represented in the visuals.
* Referencing Haruki Murakami‘s memoir, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Murakami makes the excellent point that “writing honestly about running and writing honestly about [him]self are nearly the same thing” With that in mind, I am interested in exploring running as doorway through which we can view ourselves, our landscape, and our communities, honestly.
*Founder of The Public Run Club, Karly Borden was the first person to ask me this question out loud.
* When using language around “subject” and “object” I am referring to Eavan Boland’s writing around the tradition of objectifying women in literature, and the need to carve out a new space where female authors could be subject, without objectifying, tokenizing, or emblematizing the female. While Boland applies this thinking to her prose and poetry, I am interested in exploring what the female body as subject feels like on a run.