Running of the Bulls Documentaries: The Films Worth Watching

There are only a handful of real documentaries about the running of the bulls in Pamplona. This is the list of the ones we could verify, from a 1977 American TV film to CNN’s Seeing Red in 2023, with who made each one and what it covers.

Before he made Chasing Red, Dennis Clancey set out to track down every documentary that had been made about the run. The films below are the ones that exist. Lists elsewhere online often include titles nobody can find, and we have left those out.

What makes a good encierro documentary

The running of the bulls is one of the most visual events in the world, and the best films about it let you see it. The weakest ones replace the run with people talking about the run. Where they fail is rarely the facts; it is a lack of immersion in the stories. Good encierro documentaries are driven by the event itself or by the lives of the people in it, not by narration.

“If you have an individual talking about something that happened, but you have no visual evidence of them being there, and you don’t see their active part in it, I think that starts to break down the legitimacy of a documentary.”

Dennis Clancey, director of Chasing Red

There is also a lot of footage online, on social media and YouTube, from people who ran once. A common example is a first-timer running with the cabestros, the steers released to clear the street after the main herd of bulls and steers has passed, and reacting as if it were the run. To anyone who knows the encierro, that gets old quickly.

“I would just encourage any future versions of documentaries about the running of the bulls to be event or character driven, so that it’s less about just talking about emotions and you actually see the runners doing actions.”

Dennis Clancey

The documentaries

Running with the Bulls (1977)

An American television film shot during San Fermín 1977 by Bill and Esti Marpet. It centers on the American runners Matt Carney and Joe Distler, and its focus is the encierro itself. It is a record of the generation of foreign runners whose story many later documentaries went on to retell.

Viva! San Fermín (1981)

A portrait of the festival in the early 1980s by Ivor Bowen, from the parades to the runs. It is hard to find today. Dennis tracked down a VHS copy through a university library while he was still living in Colorado, years before he made Chasing Red.

Many of the documentaries Dennis found told similar stories. What set Bowen’s apart for him is that it captured the action visually instead of talking through it. “He was a visual storyteller, and I appreciated that,” Dennis says.

Running with Bulls (2012)

Written and directed by the British journalist Jason Farrell, 51 minutes. It looks at the history and culture of the run in Pamplona and at the controversies around the festival, including safety and the protests by animal rights groups.

Bull Runners of Pamplona

Directed by Aubrey Powell, 56 minutes. It follows the eight days of runs and the people who run them, including families who pass the tradition from one generation to the next, along with the history of the run and the debates over its risks. It is available to rent or buy on Prime Video and Apple TV.

Encierro (2013)

Olivier van der Zee’s film of the run, shot in 3D and released internationally as Bull Running in Pamplona 3D. It screened at the San Sebastián Film Festival in 2013 and was reported to be the most watched Spanish documentary of that year. Its cameras put the viewer inside the run in a way few films have.

Chasing Red (2015)

Dennis Clancey’s documentary follows four runners through the eight runs of the 2012 Festival of San Fermín, and tells their story through what they did on the route rather than through interviews.

“For something that is so exciting as running with bulls, it’s dissatisfying if the majority of it is people in an interview setting just talking to the camera. I wanted to have as little of that as possible in Chasing Red. I wanted the runners to be in their element, living their fiestas.”

Dennis Clancey

It won Best of the Fest at the LA Indie Film Festival and is distributed by Magnolia Pictures. The full story is in What is Chasing Red?, and you can watch it here.

Seeing Red: Running with the Bulls (CNN, 2023)

An episode of CNN’s The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper, first aired on November 26, 2023. Correspondent David Culver follows runners as they prepare, and runs himself. Seeing Red was made on a model similar to Chasing Red. Dennis was featured as a runner, helped design the way the run would be filmed, and supported the production.

Beyond the run: You Are Not Alone: Fighting the Wolf Pack (Netflix, 2024)

This Netflix documentary is not about the encierro. It is about the 2016 sexual assault of a young woman during San Fermín by a group of men known in Spain as La Manada, and her fight for justice. It belongs on any honest list of documentaries about the fiesta. The case changed a great deal in Spain and at San Fermín itself, and, terrible as it was, its aftermath drove awareness of issues that deserve attention.

Where to watch

Availability changes often. Chasing Red is free with ads on The Roku Channel, free with a library card on Hoopla, and available to rent or buy on Prime Video, Apple TV, Fandango at Home, Google TV and YouTube; current links are in the where to watch section. Bull Runners of Pamplona is listed on Prime Video and Apple TV. The older films, Running with the Bulls and Viva! San Fermín, are rarely available and may only be found through libraries and archives.

Questions people ask

What is the best documentary about the running of the bulls?

It depends on what you want. For the run told through the runners themselves, Chasing Red (2015). For the run on screen in 3D, Encierro (2013). For history, Running with the Bulls (1977) and Viva! San Fermín (1981).

Is there a Netflix documentary about the running of the bulls?

Netflix’s San Fermín documentary, You Are Not Alone: Fighting the Wolf Pack (2024), is about the 2016 assault case during the fiesta, not the run itself.

Did CNN make a documentary about the running of the bulls?

Yes. Seeing Red: Running with the Bulls aired on CNN’s The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper on November 26, 2023. Chasing Red director Dennis Clancey was featured as a runner and helped design how the run was filmed.

Is there a running of the bulls documentary in 3D?

Yes. Encierro (2013) by Olivier van der Zee, released internationally as Bull Running in Pamplona 3D.

Why are there so few running of the bulls documentaries?

The run lasts a few minutes, happens on eight mornings a year, and is dangerous to film. Telling a story through what runners actually do on the street takes many cameras and years of access.