Educational Media Reviews Online

The Tarahumara (or Raramuri) live in the rugged mountains of northern Mexico and are famous for their long-distance running. This film shows some old VHS footage of Victoriano Churo and Cirildo Chacarito competing in ultra-marathons in America and Switzerland in the 1990’s, and spends quite a bit of time with them back home in Mexico in the present day, where we see them beset by old age and poverty.

Unfortunately, the filmmakers don’t elicit much reflection or storytelling from their taciturn subjects. There is little narration or context provided. Viewers will have to go elsewhere to find out why and under what circumstances the Tarahumara run, why they sometimes kick a wooden ball as they go, whether they all have to run long distances, whether they are physiologically distinctive after centuries of this, or what their future might be. The film is pretty slow, but it does convey something of what their life is like now. Perhaps the recording of their current life will be useful to researchers decades from now. But this film’s educational uses are slim.