what i talk about when i talk about running*

a series of short films

This project will unfold in four parts, each exploring a different area in which running offers us freedom, insight, connection, and honesty– Body, Mind, Place, and Spirit.

Running can be brutal. It can be characterized by discipline, by control, by intensity.
The kind of running practice that ensues is often fueled by self-hatred, or self-objectification, and is therefore small, rigid, punishing, fragmented, and unsustainable. Sadly this is the type of running we are most familiar with– the kind easiest to visualize– and the kind we most easily recognize as “real running.”

With this in mind, this series aims to subvert the typical representation of running– both the experience of it, and the relationship with it. With this project, I hope to explore running as a form of freedom, advocacy (and Self Advocacy*), embodiment, the feminine, creative expression, a mode of connection, and a vehicle for healing in the realms of Body, Mind, Place, and Spirit.

When I tell people I run, I usually feel the need to qualify the kind of running I engage with.
I have always wanted to show people what I am talking about when I talk about running. With this project, I hope to do just that.

Overview

  • This will be a series of lyrical, scripted short films. Each film will represent a different area of self / life that is impacted by running. Running is the lens through which each of these areas will be explored. Each film will be ~90sec long. These films will have the ability to standalone, but will also exist in a series.

  • Poetic, lyrical, dreamlike

  • Each short film will involve one day of filming, and each will take place in a distinct season. Each film will be comprised of a scripted voiceover and broll that will be a mixture of stylized broll and clips from a run.

  • Please please please give me some money!

  • Part One

    Body

  • Part Two

    Place

  • Part Three

    Mind

  • Part Four

    Spirit

* 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.