Not all of the individuals who star in Christoph Baaden’s bittersweet, intimate documentary about the people who run in the world’s longest relay race, the annual Hood to Coast race in Oregon, can be called “runners,” despite the fact that the race covers 197 miles, is a “topographic roller coaster” that begins up on Mt. Hood and snakes towards the Oregon coast, and requires contestants to run 15-17 miles each, sometimes in the middle of a very dark night.

Baaden’s interest isn’t in running, exactly, but why the various people he focuses on are “doing something outside their norm” by signing on to conquer such a physical monstrosity (one of the runners he covers, Kathy, had a heart attack and was basically dead for two minutes of the 2007 race and is back for more during the 2008 race, the one Baaden covers in Hood to Coast). From some 12,000 people, Baaden chose four teams whose life stories he details to memorable effect.

Baaden, who ran in the 2007 Hood to Coast race, recently answered a few of our questions about how and why he made the film.

SXSW: How did the idea for the movie come to you?

Baaden: I was drafted onto a team as a substitute for the race at the last minute. I had no clue about the race and I don’t particularly like running. But once I was in it, I realized there’s something magical about this, for a non-runner like me to enjoy this and to meet so many great people. My wife is from Oregon and they often have a family team, so one of the people fell out at the last minute. My father-in-law said, “There’s a space for you; fly on up here.” I probably wouldn’t have done it if I had known how hard it is.

SXSW: Was it easy to figure out which runners’ stories would be good for the film?

Baaden: We had a very long interview process. We started approaching the race’s organizers right after I ran the race in 2007. They had turned down previous documentary makers in the past but I was approaching it in a different way. For me, it’s not a sport doc; it’s about the people in the race. They choose to put themselves in this really uncomfortable situation for all sorts of different reasons. With the organizers on board, we were able to get straight to the race participants.

At the race’s registration, there were 1,000 people who signed up to be interviewed and we called pretty much every team on that list. We moved up to Portland in March of 2008 and in April we started filming with around 12 teams and we whittled it down and we ended up with the four that are in the film. But the key for us was that there needed to be a story that is much stronger than [for a runner to say], “I want to challenge myself.”

We really were digging deep and these were the stories that stuck out. Sometimes we found them, but sometimes they came to us when they heard about the project. The team R. Bowe approached us and said, “We want to remember our brother,” and this race was something that was super important for them.

SXSW: Was Kathy, the runner who almost died during a previous Hood to Coast race, nervous about telling her story?

Baaden: She actually surprisingly wasn’t – we came with a big HD camera to film her in the beginning and that made her a little timid. That’s when we learned to shoot with a smaller camera, to be able to stay close without her getting too self-aware.

The great thing was she was actually excited that we cared about her and her story, and she wanted to prove that there is life after a heart attack. You can really see in the film that she’s doing a little dance with the doctor because she just wants to keep running despite her health problems. And the doctor realized that telling her she can’t run ever again would do more harm to her. She’s a tough cookie. She is definitely pushing her limits, for sure. But it was very important for her to prove that she still can do it. And she weighed the options with us right there, and those are great documentary moments.

SXSW: It seems like you emphasize the lonely, grueling aspects of long distance running. What interests you about that?

Baaden: It can be lonely, but the real point is that in the case of Hood to Coast, it’s not. You become part of a team. But I always felt that the film simply isn’t about running. What I always envisioned for this film is that the hook is the race, but it’s only the hook. The story is that people are putting themselves into situations that test their limits and they want to find out something about themselves. There have been great documentaries where people do this in crazy ways, whether you do crazy crossword puzzles or running or whatever, but it’s the anticipation and aftermath of the situation that interests us.

For us, the sport was the way to get into these personal character stories. If it was just about running, it would be too one-note; we always wanted to have that second and third layers to the characters. You can definitely tell that they are growing or starting to heal, at the end, that there’s life after pain.

SXSW: Where did you get the money for the beautiful aerial shots?

Baaden: We got really lucky. The people who love this race are die-hard fans, so we could show that we had a built-in audience. We found investors who are big believers in this film and this race because we pitched it as a story about characters to show that the appeal would go beyond the running world and into film-lovers.

SXSW: The logistics of shooting the film, particularly the race itself, must have been kind of difficult…

Baaden: We actually had a bunch of people who shoot for The Amazing Race working on the film and they said, “The Amazing Race is a piece of cake in comparison.” We had 15 camera teams, two cameras embedded with each team – one in the van, one roving with them, 2 jibs, 2 tracking crews, 5 floating crews just capturing the race –25 cameras in total, and we had to alternate crews through four different shifts because the race goes for a solid 36 hours. The race is difficult for the runners and it’s equally difficult for the camera operators. It was a logistical nightmare, but we planned it extremely carefully. There was no phone or radio reception along parts of the course, so we really needed to trust our camera operators.

SXSW: What’s next for you?

Baaden: I’m always interested in personal stories. For us, this is the world premiere and we’re extremely proud of it, but we still have the national release which will happen in August, so there’s still work to do here. But for the next project, I’m going to do the opposite, go very small and focus on one character.

I’m scouting for a couple of ideas. The one that’s jumped out at me is a music-related film about a guy who wrote all these heavy metal lyrics when he was 13 mimicking his idols, but not understanding things like even the most basic sexual innuendoes. Bizarrely, he has a chance to perform the songs he wrote as a teenager later in life, and still holds onto his childhood dream even though he’s 35 now that he might be able to make it big. If he keeps trying, he’d make a great story. Whatever the next one, I’m just excited to keep doing what I love.

Interview by Claiborne Smith