**LATEST NEWS**
Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far. With your help we've reached - and exceeded - our fundraising goal.
But don't stop now! If you'd still like to support The Runner, please visit our supporter's page.

**LATEST NEWS**
BAFTA and Emmy award-winning journalist and filmmaker John Pilger supports The Runner, saying "The Runner is an excellent and necessary way of telling the 'forgotten' story of Western Sahara."

THE FILM
The Runner is the latest feature documentary from the award-winning filmmaker Saeed Taji Farouky and the team at Tourist With A Typewriter. It is intended as an 80 minute theatrical release, with a 52 minute television edit, and will premiere in time for the London 2012 Olympics.

The Runner is a film about the limits of our endurance. It tells the story of a champion long-distance runner who - in one dramatic moment - became the symbol of a national liberation movement. Salah Ameidan is a man willing to risk his career, his family, his nationality and his life to run for a country that doesn't exist: Western Sahara, officially the last colony in Africa. Virtually unknown on the world stage, Western Sahara is an area larger than the United Kingdom and has been under Moroccan occupation since 1975.

As a talented young athlete, Salah was forced to compete for Morocco, the country occupying his homeland, since the age of 14. During that time, he and his family suffered harassment, detention, arrest and torture at the hands of Moroccan police. One day in 2003, during a race in France, he made a bold decision that changed his life forever. As he approached the end of an 8km race, he pulled out a Sahrawi flag - illegal in Morocco as a symbol of the independence movement - and waved it across the finish line. Knowing he would never be allowed safely back home, he applied for asylum in France and has been there ever since. He continues to train intensively and competes on an international level under the flag of Western Sahara, an unrecognised country. He has no nationality, having refused offers of citizenship from France and Spain.

Today, Salah is not only one of the highest profile Sahrawi activists in the world, but is seen by his people as a national liberation hero. "Running is part of my resistance. It's the only weapon I have."

The Runner follows Salah at a critical point in his life: his success, and the risks associated with it, are about to collide. Morocco is in the middle of a violent crackdown on Sahrawi activists, and two of his family members were recently killed by Moroccan forces. As Salah becomes a more successful athlete and more recognised as a hero, he puts himself and his family in more danger. Under such pressure, what are the limits of his endurance?

(You can read more about the film here.)

THE PLAN

**Due to heavy snow, we will now be filming in Spain's Basque Country, rather than France**

In February of 2009 we filmed Salah participating in the Sahara Marathon, a race in the Algerian Sahara. We have filmed with him at international races as well as at home in France. (You can see that footage in the video above) In January, Salah will travel to a village near Pamplona, Spain, to start high-altitude training for the coming race season. This is a critical time for Salah's training, as he prepares for the French national cross-country championships in March. Salahs schedule is often unpredictable, and he only confirmed his training schedule a few weeks ago. We need to be there with him: to continue telling his story, and to film against the beautiful landscape of Basque country. We have less than 30 days to raise the money!

 

WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO?
We have big plans for this film. British filmmaker Ken Loach is a supporter, and we have a national film board behind us to make The Runner a theatrical feature documentary. However, last minute travel and the technical challenges of filming in the mountains are costly. In order for us to film Salah while he's running, we're looking for a unique technical solution. Your support will help us find it, rent the necessary equipment and ensure we can continue to tell Salah's incredible story.

WHO WE ARE
Saeed Taji Farouky, Director & Cinematographer, is an award-winning filmmaker and the Director and co-Founder of Tourist With A Typewriter Ltd. He is a TED Senior Fellow and Artist-in-Residence at Tate Britain. His work has been broadcast internationally on channels including Channel 4, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Al-Jazeera English and his films have been officially selected for The Geneva Human Rights Film Festival, Oslo International Film Festival, London International Documentary Film Festival and the Dubai International Film Festival, amongst others. 

Elhum Shakerifar, Producer, is a filmmaker and research fellow of the Department of Anthropology at Goldsmiths University with extensive experience of working with young refugees and running participatory projects. Elhum is a co-Founder and Director of award-winning collective Postcode Films - working with schools, colleges, universities and community groups to facilitate film projects that promote active citizenship and social inclusion. Postcodes work was most recently screened at the London Film Festival and the Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

Gareth Keogh, Editor,  is co-Founder of Tourist With A Typewriter Ltd. He has worked in the film, advertising and television industry for nearly a decade, with live action and animation editing and production experience in long form, short form and documentary. He has directed, produced and edited a number of documentaries dealing with human rights issues. As well as editing most of Tourist's films he Directed The Path of Most Resistance (2008) and was closely involved in Tunnel Trade (2007), A Midsummer Night's War (2007) and I See The Stars At Noon (2005)

Joe Lewis , Composer and Sound Post-Production, is a London-based music producer and composer. Since graduating from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in 2001, Joe has been writing music for documentary and advertising. Recent clients have included BBC, Time Magazine, CBC, Al Jazeera English, Roger Sanchez, VCCP, Th1ng, Tourist With a Typewriter, Kanal 5, XY Records EMI and Universal. Joe is also a founding member of electronic DJ/Production outfit Refix. Joe has collaborated with Tourist on most of their films.

Brendan Butler, sound, has been an audio engineer in the music, film and television industry for over ten years. He currently works as a location sound recordist specialising in documentaries and has been involved with Tourist With A Typewriter on many of their projects. He is also a sound editor at Shepperton International Studios and this year has worked on films such as Iron Man 2, Alice in Wonderland, Toy Story 3, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Karate Kid and Tron: Legacy.

Jo Metson Scott, stills and additional camera, is a documentary and portrait photographer who has been collaborating with the Tourist team for five years. Her work has taken her around the world and has been commissioned by The Photographers' Gallery, Nottingham Castle Art Gallery, The New York Times, The Telegraph, i-D and Dazed and Confused amongst other publication, as well as charities such as War on Want, Marie Curie and Breast Cancer Aware.
http://www.jometsonscott.co.uk/

Hikaru Toda, additional camera, has worked as a director of short documentaries for international channels such as NHK on topics related to cultural identity. Her work has covered subjects from the politics of story-telling in Palestine (Al Quds Underground http://vimeo.com/6914104 - in development) to performance art in post-conflict Rwanda. She is currently Assistant Director on a new documentary about autistic children with producer Claire Lewis (The End of the Line, The Up series) and developing her own projects. She holds a Master's Degree in Visual Anthropology and Performance Art from Goldsmiths College.

 

WHAT YOU GET FOR SUPPORTING US
By supporting this film, you'll be contributing to telling an important story and bringing to light a major, underreported global issue. In case that's not enough, we've put together some exclusive gifts. These range from a Western Sahara flag signed by Salah to an invitation to the film's premiere in 2012. Other exciting gifts include an exclusive production still signed by photographer Jo Metson Scott, your name in the credits and a signed copy of the final DVD.

 

WHAT ELSE YOU CAN DO TO SUPPORT US
As well as contributing through this page, you can help us spread the word about The Runner - send this page to your networks, your friends or your sports club. Share the video, connect us to your social network sites, follow us on twitter, visit our website and become a fan of our facebook page! 

We also welcome any offers of in-kind support with camera equipment. We're always on the lookout for new creative technical solutions to the running sequences in this film. If you know anything about filming from a helicopter, or attaching a camera to a remote-controlled airship, please get in touch!