Science in slow motion

Exhaustion chronicles a professional athlete’s journey from rest to exhaustion and recovery.

Directed by Richard Fenwick, the film was commissioned by AV Festival and draws on the expertise of Dr Paula Robson-Ansley, Dr Les Ansley and Dr Ian Walshe from the Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences at Northumbria University.

Exhaustion is filmed in epic detail and extreme slow motion at 1,000 frames-per-second, capturing rarely seen real-time data from both inside and outside the athlete’s body.

Dr Robson-Ansley said that the film opens up the world of sports science to a wider audience.

“Using cinematography, Richard Fenwick has enabled the audience to see something that they wouldn’t normally see in such detail – the individual physiological, biomechanical and psychological changes that occur in an athlete when running to exhaustion,” she said.

“He has filmed the whole body in action and the viewer can take in the reactions of the runner’s skin, muscles, sweat, feet, and breathing.

“This film has contributed something back to the entire discipline of sports science. It encapsulates what sport science actually is.”

The film, which was supported by a Wellcome Trust Arts Award, will receive its UK premiere on Sunday 11 March at the AV Festival at Newcastle’s Tyneside Cinema.

The screening will be followed by a question and answer session where members of the public can put questions to Dr Robson-Ansley and Dr Ansley.

The AV Festival is an international festival of art, technology, music and film in the North East which includes major exhibitions and over 50 film screenings and music events.

For more details on the festival and the film screening, visit http://www.avfestival.co.uk/programme/2012/events-and-exhibitions/exhaustion