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Few things help people bond more than being in the trenches through an extreme experience: travelling/living with someone over a long period, being on an outdoor schedule, working in the same department overseen by a tyrant, or taking part in high-endurance sports like trekking or long-distance running. It is during adverse conditions that all politeness flies out of the window, and people show you who they really are. It’s intimacy unlike anything else. It’s what probably explains the thick camaraderie at the heart of Basav Biradar’s 62-minute documentary, One Foot in Front of The Other. Here, Biradar chronicles a 2018 run between Bengaluru to Chennai, along with backstories of the four runners: Santosh, Chandra, Mani and Krishan. As the group undertakes the journey of 340-odd kms, the film gradually bleeds the noise around long-distance running as an endurance sport.

Santosh, a US-returned software techie (one might consider him a Bengaluru cliche), took up social work on the side in the mid 2000s. Dissatisfied with how it wasn’t leading to any ‘positive’ change, he started a running group in the late 2000s, inviting friends, acquaintances and strangers to join him. With Runner’s High, Santosh found an outlet for his compassion to do good for society, while also seeing tangible results for his effort. Santosh leads the group over four and a half days, meticulously planning each........

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