[Editor’s Note: This month’s “Community Voices” column comes to us from the Trail Running Film Festival. In this column each month, we showcase the work of a writer, visual artist, or other creative type from within our global trail running and ultrarunning community. Our goal is to tell stories about our sport and wildlands in creative and innovative ways. Read more about the concept and submit your work for consideration!]
The Trail Running Film Festival was founded in 2013 by trail runner James Varner. These days, Varner and film festival partner Abram Dickerson, who is also a trail runner, work together to produce the fest. For 2020 and because of the COVID-19 public-health crisis, the project has gone virtual. Once a month from May through August, the festival is hosting a live online show where viewers gather virtually from around the world to watch a group of films. Each online gathering additionally raises money for a charity.
The next live show takes place on Saturday, July 11, and here’s where you can get a ticket. (Your ticket also gives you access to the show’s films through July 19, in case you can’t watch live.) The July show is a fundraiser for Outdoor Afro in support of their mission to celebrate and inspire Black connections and leadership in nature.
The film fest is organizing a video project for each month of its 2020 virtual shows called Community Voices, a collaboration between the global trail-ultra community and visual artist Matt Trappe. Community members submit short videos on a specific theme, and Trappe produces a film with them. Since the project has the same name and a similar theme as iRunFar’s monthly column, we’re excited to be sharing the Trail Running Film Festival’s Community Voices films in this column several times this spring and summer. Have a look back at the festival’s first Community Voices film.
Enjoy part 2 of the Trail Running Film Festival’s Community Voices video project, which first aired during the festival’s virtual June edition. In it, several trail runners and ultrarunners share how running has helped them to become resilient and overcome adversity:
