“Town of Runners” is a moving and insightful new documentary by award-winning Kenyan filmmaker Jerry Rothwell about young runners from Bekoji – an Ethiopian highland town which has produced some of the world’s greatest distance athletes, including Tirunesh Dibaba, Kenenisa Bekele and Derartu Tulu.

The film follows the stories of Hawii and Aemi as they train around the clock, trying to add their names to Bekoji’s roll of fame.

“It’s not only a film about running but about being a teenager in a country that is in transition.

Because Bekoji has such an incredible history of producing world-class long-distance runners, this drives the girls’ ambitions” says Rothwell, who grew up in Kenya in the 1970s and cites great East African runners of that time, such as Kip Keino and MikeBoit, as his childhood heroes.

The girls at the centre of the film are too young to cempete in the London 2012 Olympics but Bekoij will be well represented, with Bekele and Didaba defending their Olympic golds from Being.

Via: Arise Magazine