The Runners – a film that jogs the mind

A runner in Victoria Park

Anyone whose New Year goal is to take up running can find inspiration in a recent documentary by two Hackney filmmakers that explores how pounding the tarmac gives you greater focus on the things that matter in life.

Filming on a trailer towed by bicycle, Ivo Gormley and Matan Rochlitz interviewed runners in Victoria Park over the course of a year for their film The Runners.

“We thought it was an interesting way to find out what was going on in people’s heads,” says Gormley, the film’s producer.

“We had about ten minutes with each person and the challenge was to try to get into a deep conversation with them and to open up about quite personal stuff.”

Starting with an ice-breaker about running, the filmmakers gained the runners’ trust before asking them more personal and deeper questions. The resulting 12-minute short sees runners speak frankly about sex, dementia, marriage, mental health and creationism.

“It was just extraordinary because people were just so clear,” says Gormley, “There was this amazing clarity and openness to these bigger, philosophical questions about what life is for.”

In total around 120 runners were interviewed, with the filming taking a year to complete.

“We were interested in showing all the different types of people,” explains Gormley. “We did early mornings and dusk and there’s one day when it was really snowy. So we tried to cover the whole range of environmental moods and feelings of people in the park.”

Gormley and Rochlitz took turns riding the bike and asking the questions, while runners would direct them to slow down or go faster.

Gormley says: “The idea was that they were the boss and we would be responding to them, which I think is a nice reversal of the normal roles in a documentary interview where the interviewer has a light shining on the subject who can’t really escape.”

Being filmed whilst running would for many be a less than appealing prospect but, insists Gormley, the act of running actually gave the interviewees a sense of empowerment rather than vulnerability.

He adds: “They are dealing with things like not having children or a serious case of depression and in that moment of running they feel quite objective. They are able to sort of feel confident enough with their own relationship with that problem to see it as something that can be overcome.”

Watch the film here: aeon.co/film/what-deep-thoughts-do-you-have-during-a-run

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