Kevin P. Gilday

Personal Best

Personal Best is an elegiac ode to the art of urban running. A collaboration between poet Kevin P. Gilday and director Nadia Valkanova, the film was shot guerilla-style on the streets of Glasgow over the course of a year, charting the changing character of a city in flux. A dynamic confluence of images mimics the propulsive movement of running while the poetic composition meditates on what we’re really running from when we lace up our trainers. A film poem capturing the loneliness of the long-distance runner while celebrating exercise as an egalitarian means of escape from societal anxiety.