Short film illustrates the fear of violence faced by many runners
Toronto filmmaker Cathy van Ingen created "Gone For A Run" to highlight the hyper-vigilance that now accompanies running
from "Gone for a Run"
Ahead of Canada’s National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women on Saturday, Toronto filmmaker Cathy van Ingen has released Gone For a Run–a short film illuminating the fear runners routinely face while simply going out for a run.
The film follows a woman going on an everyday run, with the title reflecting the words in a note one might leave for a partner or roommate when they’re heading out. It captures the hyper-vigilance many runners experience, often entailing a quick glance over the shoulder and unease triggered by past incidents of harassment and violence–whether their own or those shared in the running community. Gone For a Run aims to help viewers understand what runners carry with them and to broaden awareness around how unsafe public spaces can feel for many runners.
Van Ingen, the producer and director, is also a professor of kinesiology and the cultural studies of sport at Brock University and a feminist sport researcher. She created the project to advocate for people who face racial harassment, gender policing, intimidation, harassment and assault while running–not only women, but anyone whose safety is compromised.
“The project draws on decades of research into gender-based violence in sport,” Van Ingen said. “I was thinking of Ahmaud Arbery’s murder in 2020 while he was out for a run; a Toronto runner, [SarahRose Black], who was assaulted in broad daylight in 2024 and shared her story on social media; and more locally for me, a Port Colborne, Ont., woman who was stalked and assaulted while running along a canal training for her first marathon. Let’s expand the conversation and do more.”
Activism against gender-based violence
The release of the film aligns with the United Nation’s 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, which runs annually from Nov. 25 (the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) and Dec. 10 (International Human Rights Day).
Gone For a Run joins a growing movement of initiatives pushing to end gender-based violence. Among them is Black’s “Finish the Run” event, launched just one month after her attack, based on the powerful but simple idea of returning to the site of the attack and finishing the 20 kilometres she had been unable to complete that day.
