Talking to Maleek from “Talk to Frank”
Talk to Frank is one of the 2025 grant recipients for the Run the Alps x On Trail Running Film Festival. The film was co-produced by Ellie and Matt Green, and tells the story of Maleek, an ex-convict, whose life has been completely changed by trail running. Together, they hope it will help bring more diversity to the sport by opening doors and demonstrating that the outdoors is available to everyone.
Charlie Edwards, friend of Run the Alps, spoke with Maleek about his life, the film, and Frank. He discusses his life before running and describes the many ways that trail running has reshaped how he sees the world and his future.
Talk to Frank
Filmmakers: Ellie & Matt Green, Summit Fever Media
Charlie: How and why did you get Frank?
Maleek: At the back end of 2021 I ended up with COVID. I’m asthmatic, so I knew I had a chest infection—it turned into pneumonia and then bleeding on the lungs— I was really, really ill. On my last legs basically.
During that time, my daughter texted me and asked, “When I come up, can I get a puppy?”
I said, “Yeah, I want to get you one, so that when you come visit you’ll have something to do.”
When I started to recover and walk again, I took myself there [to the breeder’s]. I was still very, very weak, and when I got there, Frank just did something. They say your dog chooses you—it was like, yeah, he’s our dog…I want him!
Charlie: Where did the name Frank come from?
Maleek: The name Frank—obviously I used to have a colorful background—I used to set up county lines. I don’t know if you know what county lines are? It’s when you leave your area and you go to rural towns and sell your drugs and set up drug phones. [Editors Note: A drug phone is a phone used exclusively by dealers to arrange orders and deliveries of drugs.]
That was my forté—I grew up selling drugs and I was involved in gangs and crazy stuff. My drug phone was always called Frank, “the Frank line,” ’cause I really liked the film American Gangster, and I liked how Denzel Washington played Frank Lucas. Some of the drug-takers started saying they liked the name because there’s the quote, “if you’ve got a problem with a drug, call FRANK.” Do you remember the drug line on TV for the helpline Talk To FRANK? That was just a coincidence! [Talk to FRANK is a well-known UK based helpline.]
But now, I’ve started saying “talk to Frank” —the dog. When I have a problem, I talk to Frank ’cause he listens but he doesn’t shoot no answers.
Charlie: Since getting Frank, what’s changed?
Maleek: Frank is just the best thing that ever happened. Once I could take him out, I started walking around the parks with him. But it wasn’t long after I got him that I went through a severe depression—It was something I never thought I could go through because I’ve always been quite strong. My COVID situation triggered a lot of problems—I was already quite low, but I was battling through. I was trying to work, but I kept getting kicked out of jobs ’cause I’d put my DBS check [a basic disclosure in the UK] in and they’d see I had a criminal record. These things were really starting to affect my mental health. I’m trying my best to be better; I promised myself that I’m not going back to the easy way—going back to selling drugs and making loads of money, for me, that’s the easy way. I said to myself, I’ve got to be honest and resilient; I’ve got to go the right way, for my family, for my kids, for myself. I was really struggling a lot. I felt like society wasn’t made to help; it kept knocking me down. I was knocking on doors, but kept getting kicked out.
I was already fresh out of prison, and then I got ill with covid so I had to stay still. I had no choice but to stay in, and that affected me even more ’cause I had too much time to think and look at where I am in my life. I was just disappointed with myself. I had old drug dealing friends calling me up saying you can make £5000 here and £5000 there—I just crumbled. I started hibernating, staying inside, I was having anxiety attacks, and I went to the hospital just to speak to them, but that wasn’t much help because the NHS [the UK’s free health service] was such a mess with COVID. I felt like I didn’t want to be here, and I thought maybe not being here would be easier. I could never commit suicide, but that’s what I was thinking. Then someone very special to me said, “You’ve got this dog now—let’s start hiking,” and I was like, “Nah, hiking’s not really for me!”
Charlie: Had you done much hiking before?
Maleek: Nah, never! I’d done walks through nice parks with coffee, you know, but never like this. We went for this hike… actually we went looking for a waterfall and ended up on top of a mountain (Penyghent in the Yorkshire Dales). It was just like, all my stress, everything just went away. It was just gone. I felt like I had loads of chains on me and then with every step, more chains kept coming off. It was in December so it was cold, but the weather was beautiful—the sun was out, cloud inversions—it was actually amazing. Instead of thinking about my problems, all I kept saying was “Woah, look at that; woah, look at that!” When we got to the top, I had the biggest smile, and it was only when we were coming back down that I realized I hadn’t thought about any of my problems. This is clarity! I realised that I’d unshackled myself; I realised that what happened in my life is not that deep—I’ve just got to stay strong and have faith. I was saying these types of things to myself on the way down, and by the time I got back to the car, I thought, “Yeah, this is what I’m doing now. I’m climbing these mountains!”
Charlie: And what made you move from hiking onto running?
Maleek: Well, when I started to set up my Instagram—I’d done about twenty mountains in the space of two months—Matt Green [the filmmaker] got in contact about a shoot for Berghaus. I was very unsure ’cause I’m not from this world; I’m not sure if I can trust these people. But then I thought I’d just step out of the box. So I went on the shoot, and on the drive up with Matt we made this bond that I think is long-lasting. He was interested in me because he’s from such a different walk of life, and he wanted to bring more diversity into the outdoors. Anyway, he’s a trail runner, so when I sat around with him and other trail runners, they were all telling me about how you get to see so much more of the mountains when you run. So I did my first trail run, and thought, “This is how I want to do it now!”
Charlie: In the film, Frank has a wonderful voice and personality. Can you tell us how you and Matt developed these for him?
Maleek: Well Frank has always lived in Manchester, so he’s been brought up round here. My brother is an active filmmaker himself, and he asked, “Let me do the voice for Frank”, ’cause he’s really good at doing funny common voices—and I think Frank is a common black guy from Manchester. What I tend to do anyway, and my brothers, anytime we’re around Frank, we narrate for him, you know, messing around. Like when Frank sniffs stuff wanting something to eat, you know we’re narrating for him and making each other laugh, “Come on mate, give us a crumb.” So we thought we should definitely keep it how we do it at home. He’s always had that proper Mancunian accent when we’re narrating for him.
Charlie: You’ve progressed from walks to runs, from mountains to big mountains. Was that intentional or did it just happen that way?
Maleek: Yeah, things just happened naturally. I really want to complete the Wainwrights so that was my original target, but with getting the shoots and stuff like that, I’ve been introduced to more places, more mountains, more traverses. And I was like—okay, there’s more out here. So yeah, I do plan to go bigger every time, and I set myself passion projects.
Charlie: What’s the next passion project you have planned?
Maleek: I’m giving myself 100 days to fastpack the 214 Wainwrights. And then apart from that, my main thing is I want to set up an organization so I can take kids out of these deprived areas in London, and take them into the mountains and introduce them to the healing power of nature, to do team building workshops, self-enlightenment workshops, stuff to help them find their true self which leads to better choices in life.
Charlie: How do you feel about running in the Alps?
Maleek: French is my second language, and then I was blessed with this shoot in the Alps. And it’s weird because I’d always heard about the Alps, but I had my eye on places further afield. But I went there, and it’s mountaineering heaven isn’t it! It’s trail running heaven. And I met Barney and Liv who were living in Chamonix, and they were telling me about the stuff they’ve done in the mountains, and about how in the seven years of living out there, they still haven’t seen everything! There’s so much to do! And I saw lots of people with their dogs too, and I just fell in love with it.
Charlie: What, more generally, has trail running given you?
Maleek: Adversity will always happen ’cause my life is like that, you know—I’ve still got family and friends who are involved in things they shouldn’t be involved in, I come from a certain place, and I was never raised with a silver spoon. The fear of things going wrong is always around the corner, but I feel like with the love of the mountains and learning how to escape the rat-race by getting out and running on some trails, seeing sunrises, sunsets, cloud inversions, waterfalls, and just the beauty of nature—I’ve got a superpower. I’ll always face adversity, but this is how I deal with it now–by going to the mountains, getting my head back, and I come back with hope. It’s helped me strip my ego. Trail running has been a blessing to me!
Run the Alps x On Trail Running Film Festival
You can watch Talk to Frank along with the other 2025 Film Festival selections here.
Read more about the 2025 grant recipients.
Our previous Film Festivals are all right here for viewing.
