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My latest documentary, ‘The Infinite Race’, a @30for30, premieres tonight on @espn and @ESPNDeportes. Here’s a smart and thorough review in @guardian https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/dec/15/tarahumara-ultrarunning-mexico-documentary?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
All docs have a special DNA, ingredients - things that make them possible. For ‘The Infinite Race’ a small seed was planted when I was 17 and saw this movie on cable (at family friend’s home bc we didn’t have cable.)
‘The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner’ resonated with my anti-authority worldview as a teen much more than the romantic ‘Chariots of Fire’ I had seen as a kid (though I did have a cassette of the Vangelis score.)
More recently, as someone who has made a few projects about the love-hate relationship between the US and Mexico, I read this stunner of an investigative piece by @goldbergryan in @TexasMonthly: https://features.texasmonthly.com/editorial/the-drug-runners/
One of the voices highlighted on Ryan’s article (Ryan is a consulting producer on the doc) is the great Irma Chávez, an activist, runner and educator from the rarámuri nation, who became a key participant in the film.
In all of this, I hadn’t yet read “Born to Run” the 2009 bestseller by Christopher McDougall which is credited for helping inspire the barefoot or minimal footwear ‘craze’ and which refers to runners of the rarámuri nation as a “hidden tribe of super athletes”
Working with co-producer Andrea Córdoba, journalist and longtime collaborator @Stevelfisher, cinematographer Victor Tadashi Suárez and editor Flavia De Souza we focused primarily on the Mexico (Chihuahua) aspect of the story.
