Dancing the Bear: A 100-Mile Journey of Personal Exploration (DVD)
Posted July 9th, 2007 at 4:00 PM by Paul Petersen
Section: Motivation, Movies, Special Features, TFS Reviews
Documentaries have become an increasingly popular and powerful movie genre, with a variety of titles such as “Super Size Me”, “Fahrenheit 9/11″ “Roger and Me”, and “Spellbound” gaining both cult status and mass appeal.
However, the special interests of runners have been largely neglected, and I’ve been left wondering, “Where’s my running documentary?”. My wait ended earlier this year with the release of “Dancing the Bear: A 100-Mile Journey of Personal Exploration“.
“Dancing the Bear”, created by Soul Focus Productions, is a 54-minute documentary that closely chronicles the experience of two women, Kelly Bradbury and Mary Workman, attempting to complete the 2004 Bear 100 Endurance Run. The DVD weaves its story through a cohesive string of interviews supplemented by beautiful video footage of the race, the people, and landscape.
The Bear 100 was founded in 1999, and traverses 100 miles of trails in southern Idaho’s Bear River Mountain Range. The course climbs a cumulative total of 21061 feet in elevation, and participants have 35 hours to complete the endeavor. To even finish a race like this is an accomplishment shared by few.
The film takes its viewers through the entire race journey, including all the physical and psychological stages of exaltation, fatigue, pain, doubt, and hope. As the race and the film progressed, I found myself wondering, “Will Kelly and Mary finish?” It was very easy to become engaged with movie’s characters, story, and philosophies.
As a marathoner and weekend-warrior trail-runner, I found this documentary to be both informative and inspiring. I never knew the nuts and bolts these grueling 100-mile ultra running events, but “Dancing the Bear” took me into the hearts and minds of the runners and of the race itself. The film captures both the highs and the lows of running, both the serenity and the bruised feet, both the exaltation of finishing and mid-race mind games.
I recommend this movie for not just trail runners, but road runners and non-runners as well. Many of the themes and emotions presented in “Dancing the Bear” are universal to runners, whether their preferred surface is trail, road, or grass. It address the age-old questions of why people run, how running integrates with life, and what gives people the ability to endure pain and struggle on to a goal. The film should also appealing to non-runners, as it delves inside the relatively unknown world of ultra running, and demystifies much of what makes runners “tick”.
I both identified with and was inspired by “Dancing the Bear”. In fact, this Saturday I am running my first long-distance trail race!
Dancing the Bear is available for $20 on Amazon.com and Soul Focus Productions. A short trailer of the film can be viewed here.
PHOTOS:
- Dancing the Bear DVD Cover; Soul Focus logo (Courtesy of Soul Focus Productions)
- Runner battling the terrain and elements at the 2006 Bear 100 Endurance Run; Sun ‘n Snow Runners logo (Courtesy of Bear 100 Mile Endurance Run Cache Sun ‘n Snow Runners)
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Tags: bear 100, Bear 100 Endurance Run, bear river mountain range, Bear River Range, dancing the bear, documentary, DVD, endurance run, fahrenheit 9/11, idaho, kelly bradbury, mary workman, roger and me, running dvd, running movie, soul focus productions, southern Idaho, spellbound, super size me, trail run, trail running, trail running dvd, trail running movie, ultra marathon, ultra running, ultramarathon, video, video footage
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July 9th, 2007 at 2:30 pm