I am not sure how this was made in terms of how long it took to get a handful of good subjects to fill out a 10 minute film, but the changing seasons in this short suggest that the camera moved around quite a few unresponsive subjects in the process of getting some that would talk. The basis of the film is to interview joggers as they pass through a park, with the idea that they will be more open to talk because of being distracted or just deep in thought. It is an interesting idea for sure and indeed when I was able to run (pre-back injury) I usually needed music because I found the companionship of just my own brain to be pretty boring.
There are moments in this film when the interviewees give rather pat statements but generally this is far from the case because most of the contributions are surprisingly honest about themselves – not giving out fortune cookie wisdom for others. For example we get chat from a woman working on having enough intimacy in her relationship, a woman who has seen the chance to have children pass her by, a man who had a mental breakdown and so on. They are all snippets but in these cases the approach works and the people are talkative – whether these same subjects would have been anyway is questionable, but it doesn't matter as it works here.
Some of the interviews are really touching and I did like that everyone felt real and honest about who they were and where they were. It is a film where the simplicity of life is what makes it work and the subjects show you that in a way that engages. The camera-work is pretty good considering it was keeping pace with the subjects although the downside is that occasionally the people are quite hard to hear due to exercising and the noise of feet pounding concrete. It does still work though and, although the device is not perfect, it produces good results with an intimate and honest film.