PORTLAND, Ore. -- A decade after leading the Yale women's track and field team as captain, Faith Briggs '10 is still running -- and now she is making the sport part of her global citizenship efforts, earning recognition for her filmmaking along the way. Her recently released documentary "This Land", which chronicles her running 150 miles through three U.S. National Monuments, has been selected for a dozen different film festivals and premiered to a sold-out audience at the Banff Mountain Film Festival last November.  
 
After two years of planning, Briggs ran through Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in Oregon, Grand Staircase Escalante in Utah and Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument in New Mexico. The three locations were part of a list of 27 National Monuments subject to federal review following an executive order in 2017. Briggs aims to illustrate what is at stake if they are reduced.
 
"I never thought of myself as a conservationist," Briggs says in the film. "I actually used to think that conservation was a really privileged thing, and that for people from historically marginalized communities I had to think about people first. The battle now is saying 'No, I am a conservationist' and redefining what that means." 
 
At various points of the journey Briggs -- who averaged 20 miles of running per day -- was joined by running companions who offered additional perspective on the issues at hand. In addition to being shown at festivals the film has been made available free of charge online, with the goal of enabling more people to use it as a tool for conversation. 
 
Briggs has focused on representation and global citizenship throughout her career. After graduating from Yale with a B.A. in African American Studies and Film Studies, she earned an M.A. from the New York University Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. She eventually joined the documentary department at Discovery Communications. That job, combined with a stint with Columbia Sportswear as on-camera talent in the "Directors of Toughness" marketing campaign, helped further her interest in environmental advocacy for the protection of at-risk communities. Briggs also was inspired by reading about former Yale golfer Andia Winslow '05 completing the National Park Foundation's "Find Your Park" expedition in 2015.
 
One of Briggs' earlier films, "Brotherhood of Skiing", premiered at the Banff Mountain Film Festival in 2018 and chronicled the National Brotherhood of Skiers -- an organization whose mission is to "identify, develop and support athletes of color who will win international and Olympic winter sports competition representing the United States and to increase participation in winter sports."
 
The captain of the 2009-10 Yale track and field team, Briggs now lives in Portland, Ore., after spending her childhood and early adulthood in Brooklyn and the Hudson Valley region of New York. At Yale she was a member of the 4x400 meter relay team that broke the indoor school record with a time of 3:48.92 during the 2007-08 season. 
 
Being part of a relay team provided Briggs with some of her most memorable moments as a Bulldog.
 
"The 4x4 was such a great event," she said. "You had your teammates lining the track. It always felt like the clincher. I remember exactly how it feels to round that last corner and have to give it your all to get the baton to your teammate."
 
In addition to memories of moments on the track, Briggs also carries with her the bigger-picture concepts she learned as a student-athlete. 
 
"I still really value what it means to be on a team," Briggs said. "I've been able to maintain that. Especially with everything that is happening in the country right now -- people don't know what to do. I go back to roles. In sports you learn that. If everyone on the team was an 800m runner, we wouldn't have a very strong team. You need jumpers, throwers, and all of the other events. It takes everyone figuring out what their unique talents and skills are."
 
Through a series of unfortunate injuries, Briggs also learned another key concept in her athletic career: perseverance. She recalls spending the majority of Christmas break her junior year biking out to Coxe Cage to train on her own in order to earn her spot back. 
 
"What I remember is a lot of grit," Briggs said. "To continue to run despite the injuries was really hard. It took a lot of grit and friends."
 
All those lessons have now paid off for Briggs with a career centered on her values. In addition to her work as an independent film producer she is Director of Development for Global Works Community Fund, an organization that enables high school students to make service-oriented international trips. She is also one of the guides on the Just Add Water project, which includes on-line events "designed to cultivate common ground among diverse communities and make outdoor recreation welcoming and accessible to all." 
 
As part of the Just Add Water project, "This Land" will be screened on-line Thursday, July 9 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time. Briggs will take part in a question-and-answer session afterwards. It will also be screened on-line Wednesday, July 15 as part of the Protect Our Winters campaign, with Briggs and ultrarunner/environmental advocate Clare Gallagher (a Princeton cross country/track and field alum) answering questions afterwards.
 
In addition to "This Land", Briggs also just released a short film called "We Hike to Heal", about a series of events designed to empower women through journaling, meditation and spending time in the outdoors.

"I believe that artists have a responsibility to provoke the social conscience of a society," Briggs states on her website. "It is my desire to create nuanced work exploring themes of global citizenship and representation. The 'to whom much is given much is expected' mantra guides me and I feel too blessed to not continue to invest in growing the powerful communities that have embraced me."


Watch "This Land":