Volcanic Sprint

Volcanic Sprint is a documentary film that follows runners as they prepare for and compete in the 2006 Mount Cameroon Race of Hope, a ridiculously difficult marathon up and down a mountain. I watched a screening last night at the Aurora Theatre in Houston. Director Steve Dorst was there to help present the work. After the conclusion of the film, Dorst did a Q&A session with the audience, talking about his interest in the country of Cameroon, giving updates on some of subjects profiled in the story, and discussing some of challenges faced by the film crews in getting the action footage during the race itself.

I had found out about this screening from an announcement on the HARRA webpage, and the aspiring athlete **chuckle** in me just had to see it. After seeing Spirit of the Marathon in January, this film makes a great opposing bookend in the spectrum of marathon experience. Spirit tells the story of a high-profile race cradled in one of America's largest and flattest cities. Sprint is the tale of an event nearly flat of corporate sponsorship that exposes participants at one of the highest peaks in west Africa. Probably to the benefit of non-runners in the audience, neither film gets very technical about the marathon training or strategy, as they focus on the human aspects of the participants and their feelings as they prepare to race. Dorst commented that the training programs and equipment used by the Race of Hope participants isn't complicated or expensive: They run on slopes. I laughed out loud at a scene where one of the profiled runners was discussing training and it actually showed him at an Internet cafe logging into the Runner's World site for tips, just like we do.

A note on the venue: This was my first visit to the this itty-bitty cinema in the inner-Loop, and my stupid self had left my neatly-printed directions to the Aurora Picture Show at home. Having been inured by so many megaplex visits over the years, I was unprepared to anticipate this building and ended up driving by twice!

The location is at 800 Aurora Street, in the middle of a predominantly residential block near the intersection of North Main and the North 610 Loop. It doesn't visually stand out from the houses that surround it. There is no grand sign declaring that one has arrived at a house of film worship. (The building is a converted church.) But I found it, and I went home glad the community can support a place where devotees of independent film can seek their heaven.