In early 2020, Darius Sam, an Indigenous 19-year-old living in British Columbia, resolved to run 100 miles at once, to raise awareness for addiction and mental health. Watch a short documentary about his feat and his transformation.
Darius Sam struggled with depression in his teens. Running transformed him.
In early 2020, Darius Sam, an Indigenous nineteen-year-old living in British Columbia, lost a family member to addiction. That family member left behind a son. “I was looking at him and I was thinking, This guy’s going to have no positive male influence in his life,” Sam told me recently. “Maybe I should go and do something good,” in the hopes of inspiring himself and others. Sam started running. Having never done it seriously, he found a release, and “just kept running,” he said.
Sam trained for only twenty-eight days before his first hundred-mile run, a small fraction of the time that many athletes would take to prepare, and collapsed before the ninety-mile mark. He decided to try again. Chebib told me he read about the first attempt and was on a call with Sam “within half an hour.” At first, the filmmaker hesitated to take on the project.
The film was shot on Nlaka’pamux and Syilx territory in the Nicola Valley. Both the setting and the winter season lend the film a cool, almost desolate, mood. Sweeping drone footage shows the snow-covered valley, and we follow Sam overhead as his feet pound frosted forest trails. But Chebib is careful to draw out moments of warmth. In one scene, Sam’s face is awash with light as he opens up to his coach about his difficulties trusting others.
“The Runner” is both a story of physical triumph and the spirit’s ability to endure. On a ranch, early in the film, Sam offers his grandfather a bit of wisdom: “You can almost callus your mind the same way you callus your hands,” he says. “I think that’s a great idea,” his grandfather replies. Somewhere around mile fifty, Sam’s body begins to give out. “He’s hurting,” his coach says, to the camera. But, as Sam’s doubts compound, the faces of his loved ones flash across the screen.
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