FF PREGAMING THE OLYMPICS
Can’t wait for the Olympics to kick off?
Here at Film Fatales, we thought we would start things off with a curated list of sports-themed feature films and shows directed by some of our talented members.
Give it a peek, we ALWAYS love the support!
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After Munich by Francine Zuckerman
September 5th 1972, the tenth day of the Munich Olympics, the Palestinian terrorist group Black September stormed the Israeli athletes’ quarters. The world watched live on television as eleven hostages were taken and later killed. For the first time, this story will be told through the eyes of four women. They were directly impacted by that day: An athlete, a widow, and two undercover agents.
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Children of the Wind by Daphne Schmon
The story of the Bonaire windsurfers, a group of native kids, who under the remarkable mentorship of Elvis Martinus, overcame insuperable odds to not only dominate an inherently elitist sport but to revolutionize it.
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First Match by Olivia Newman
Hardened by years in foster care, a teenage girl from Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood decides that joining the boys wrestling team is the only way back to her estranged father.
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Ice Diaries by Anna Sang Park
Four up-and-coming American figure skaters try to make the 2006 Olympic team.
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In Football We Trust by Erika Cohn
An insightful and moving documentary feature film exploring in rich detail the remarkable story behind the Polynesian Pipeline to the NFL. A contemporary American story, the film transports viewers deep inside the tightly-knit and complex Polynesian community in Salt Lake City, Utah, one of the chief sources for the modern influx of Pacific Islander NFLers. With unprecedented access and shot over a four- year time period, the film intimately portrays four young Polynesian men striving to overcome gang violence and near poverty through the promise of American football.
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Iverson by Zatella Beatty
The story of one of the most electrifying athletes of all-time, told in the NBA legend’s own words. Rising from a childhood of crushing poverty, Allen Iverson became an 11-time NBA All-Star and universally recognized icon of his sport. Off the court, his audacious rejection of conservative NBA convention and unapologetic embrace of hip hop culture sent shockwaves throughout the league.
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Last Woman Standing by Juliet Lammers and Lorraine Price
Last Woman Standing follows world champion boxers and former friends, Ariane Fortin and Mary Spencer, as they fight for an Olympic dream that can only belong to one.
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Nine for IX by Senain Kheshgi and Jessica Wolfson
A series of documentary films focusing on captivating stories of women in sports told through the lens of female filmmakers.
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Olympic Pride American Prejudice by Deborah Riley Draper
A feature-length documentary set in the strained and turbulent atmosphere of a racially divided 1930s America, torn between boycotting Hitler’s Olympics or participating in the Third Reich’s grandest affair. The film follows 16 men and 2 women through their heroic turn at the Summer Olympic Games in Berlin, 1936. the atheletes represented a country that considered them second-class citizens and competed in a country thta rolled out the red carpet in spite of an undercurrent of Aryan superiority and Anti-Semitism. 18 athletes carried the weight of a race on their shoulders and stood tall in the middle of a political firestorm. They made the team, travelled to Berlin and did the unexpected with grace and dignity. Their presence on the world stage is a seminal precursor to the Civil Rights Movement. History forgot all except one. This is the story of the other 17.
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Power Meri by Joanna Lester
A documentary that follows Papua New Guinea’s first national women’s rugby league team, the PNG Orchids, on their journey to the 2017 World Cup in Australia.
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Religion of Sports by Amanda Micheli
A docuseries that travels the world to answer the question: why do sports matter?
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Sisters on Track by Corinne van der Borch
A coming of age story about hope, belonging, and the metaphorical and literal sisterhood of young athletes Tai, Rainn, and Brooke Sheppard living in New York.
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Snow Day by Erica Milsom
A documentary film about life, death, and skiing that follows a group of senior citizens on their weekly ski trip in the Colorado Rockies.
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Sunshine Superman by Marah Strauch
A heart-racing documentary portrait of Carl Boenish, the father of the BASE jumping movement, whose early passion for skydiving led him to ever more spectacular –and dangerous– feats of foot-launched human flight. Experience his jaw-dropping journey in life and love, to the pinnacle of his achievements when he and wife Jean broke the BASE jumping Guinness World Record in 1984 on the Norwegian ‘Troll Wall’ mountain range. Incredibly, within days, triumph was followed by disaster. Told through a stunning mix of Carl’s 16mm archive footage, well-crafted re-enactments and state-of-the-art aerial photography, Sunshine Superman will leave you breathless and inspired.
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Swim Team by Lara Stolman
What would you do if your community gave up on your child? The parents of a boy on the autism spectrum take matters into their own hands, forming a competitive swim team, recruiting teens on the spectrum and training them with high expectations and zero pity. Watch the extraordinary rise of the Jersey Hammerheads, capturing a moving quest for inclusion, independence, and a life that feels winning.
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Sync or Swim by Cheryl Furjanic
A group of women compete for a spot on the US Olympic team.
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Tainted Blood by Jill Yesko
In a nearly forgotten incident, seven members of the US cycling team blood doped at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles to earn the first US cycling medals since the 1912 Olympics. Told through the voices of Olympic athletes, coaches, doctors, and sports historians, TAINTED BLOOD explores the secret world where athletes push themselves to the precipice and are driven by coaches with their own Olympic-fueled dreams.
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The Boxers of Brule by Jessie Adler
A documentary short that follows 23 year old Shaionna Grass Rope as she creates a girls’ boxing team in memory of her best friend- amateur boxer Cheryl Ziegler- who she lost to suicide in January 2017.
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Through the Banks of the Red Cedar by Maya Washington
A play on the Michigan State University fight song, the story follows the 50 year legacy of the filmmaker’s father, legendary Vikings wide-receiver Gene Washington (College Football Hall of Fame, Big Ten Ford-Kinnick Leadership Award, Michigan State Athletics Hall of Fame, 50 Greatest Vikings Honoree) from the segregated South to MSU alongside highly decorated teammates Bubba Smith (Defensive Lineman), George Webster (Rover Back) and Clinton Jones (Running Back) as they become members of the first fully integrated football team in America, later making history as first round picks in the 1967 Draft.
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Tracktown by Alexi Pappas
Plumb, an ambitious and famous distance runner, twists her ankle before the Olympic trials. But her life changes when she is forced to take a day off to recover.
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United Skates by Dyana Winkler and Tina Brown
When America’s last standing roller rinks are threatened with closure, a community of thousands battle in a racially charged environment to save an underground subculture– one that has remained undiscovered by the mainstream for generations, yet has given rise to some of the world’s greatest musical talent.
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Wrestle by Lauren Belfer and Suzannah Herbert
An intimate feature documentary following four Alabama teenagers attempting to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles through one historic wrestling season.
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9-Man by Ursula Liang
Players of an athletic Chinese-American event battle to be champion and to preserve the sport.
