Fellrunning Film

[Bierzo Baggie]

Just read a review of the film on the fellrunner website. Hope you don't mind me posting it here...

There has never been a film made by an artist about fellrunning. Television journeymen churn out films about The Ben etc but they are designed to be general-viewer friendly and follow a tired personality-drivel format of clichéd questions posed by journalists with little empathy for the sport.

We now have the sublime The Bedlamites.

How this 15 minute film came to be made by Shyla and Lucas Lee (Clayhouse Productions) is not important (sponsorship by Bradford City Council to underpin its annual Film Festival).

What matters is that The Bedlamites is superb.

Although the premise on which the film is based is the pastime of some fellrunners to go running at night over, for example, Great Whernside, which is quirky and entertaining enough; this merely provides the springboard for the viewer to share the thoughts of the majestic Ian Holmes of Bingley Harriers (whom I suppose in time might eventually become recognised as the greatest fellrunner) and the elegant and eloquent Camille Askins (Keighley & Craven).

Ian, Fell Champion par excellence talks, in his uniquely modest way, about race technique, the joy of fellrunning, the craic; and Camille reflects, well, more on the philosophy of fellrunning and the intense experience of running in total darkness with only one’s head torch to light the way.

Dozens of other runners will be recognised: Brett Weeden, Ted Mason, (even this writer), but the wonder of this film is not runner spotting but that it captures the essence of the sport. As Camille says, “It just makes people well.”

The sign of a mediocre television documentary is a voice-over commentary: aural evidence that the pictures, or the people talking on the screen, are inadequate. But no out-of-work actor has been employed here: all you hear and see is the joie de vivre of the runners, whether lost on the fell or in the pub.

Brilliantly edited from many hours of film to just 15 minutes, and matched to atmospheric music commissioned from Phillip Codd, this film says more about fellrunning than dozens of hours of mediocrity. Only 15 minutes? The Bedlamites, like all great art, makes time stop. One watches enthralled thinking “and can there be still more to come?”

This is not so much a documentary about film running as a poem to a wonderful sport and way of life. The film may now be seen at World Film Festivals but in gratitude to the runners who took part the producers are making it available on DVD for a nominal £5.

The Bedlamites is a masterpiece in miniature.