Silver Screening of "Miles and Trials"

Celebrate women's running at the Miles and Trials premiere.

Wendy Shulik, a Chicago-based documentary filmmaker with a passion for running, has filmed the Bank of America Chicago Marathon and countless races around Chicago. She's lugged camera supplies across the country. She's trailed female runners to Grandma's Marathon and the California International Marathon. She's gathered hours of interviews and film footage. It's all been part of her dream to share the story of female runners as they shoot for their goals of competing at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials for the 2012 London Games, held in Houston in January. And the finished product will be Miles and Trials, a documentary film that takes nearly 50 hours of film about women's running and showcases female runners as they train for and try to qualify for the marathon trials.

Tonight, runners, film fans and anyone who's curious can catch a glimpse of Miles and Trials, the project Shulik has been pouring herself into for more than two years. A trailer of the documentary will premiere at the Indie Incubator Film Festival. Held at Mother's Bar at 26 W. Division, the doors open at 8 p.m. for this free event. Not only do you get to watch highlights of Miles and Trials, which is expected to be released in full during summer 2012, but you can also check out the rest of the film festival. All of the films showcased at the festival are up for the "Best of the Fest" award, which is decided by a judge's panel and awards $250 to its winner.


Need more reason to attend? Maybe these can persuade you:

• You're a fan of women's running. And even if you're not, maybe you will be after reading more about Miles and Trials here.
• You want to support women's running.
• Mother's is a short walk from the Lakefront Path where many of us find ourselves running, especially on a nice, not-too-hot night like tonight. And you don't have to run home because it's also close to the Red Line.
• You're all for watching unique films.
• When else can you watch movies for free? It doesn't happen often.

My sister would have no problem convincing me to attend this event. As interested as I am in endurance sports, she's into movies. Looks like we could both be happy for an evening--if she didn't live 1,500 miles away. Now the only problem is juggling my schedule, and my evening of swimming and biking, to be able to attend. If you're able to attend, we're all ears on hearing about what you saw.

Photo grabbed from lululemon athletica at flickr.com.