A neurologist finds peace and happiness in the feeling of constant acceleration

Having spent decades as an affluent but ‘typical, institutionalised, educated Western man’, the neurologist John Kitchin radically reassessed his life after finding that he was losing his eyesight and had grown unsatisfied in his work. Emerging from a bout of hopelessness with the realisation that all he wanted to do was ‘the basic things and skate’, he gave up his practice. Now a minor celebrity on San Diego’s Pacific Beach boardwalk, Kitchin – or Slomo, as he’s become known – practices an idiosyncratic, seemingly slow-motion style of inline skating that doubles as meditation. A charming and light-hearted vision of what can happen when you actually do what you want to, Slomo (2013) won dozens of awards upon its release, including Best Short Documentary at the SXSW Film Festival.