Jogging

A plucky microbudget indie, Brightwood is a masterclass in what is achievable with hardly any money whatsoever: just a premise, a couple of actors, and a writer-director (Dane Elcar) who doubles as cameraperson. It’s also an illustration of the limits of the form, because it would be starry-eyed and untrue to claim that money makes no difference to what can be achieved.We open on a couple, jogging in the woods and fighting as they go. Jen (Dana Berger) and Dan (Max Woertendyke) have evidently been married for long enough…

A screenshot of a Strava heatmap of Baltimore.Screenshot: Strava/Alison Mariella DésirIf you see a jogger, you’re probably in a white neighborhood. That’s according to Strava data from major cities like New York City and Baltimore, which show that running paths mirror American segregation. Running requires the perception of safety of multiple kinds, a necessity Black neighborhoods have long been denied. In February 2020, Ahmaud Arbery was murdered while jogging in Georgia, the victim of a racist hate crime. He had run…