My favorite film from last month’s Speechless Film Festival is My Life I Don’t Want, created by Nyan Kyal Say. The appeal of My Life I Don’t Want lies in its simplicity in story and style, though that simplicity also belies much complexity about girls’ experiences in Myanmar and elsewhere. My Life I Don’t Want…
Tag: girls culture
The Challenges of Getting and Staying ‘In the Game’
Sport documentaries are one of the oldest and most popular genres of the form. Some of the earliest films recorded boxing matches, as the sport’s confined area and bright lighting paired well with camera capabilities at the time. Later documentaries highlighted the spectacles of athletes and their abilities. Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia (1938) and Kon Ichikawa’s…
‘Buffalo Girls’ Follows Two Thai Girl Boxers
Todd Kellstein’s Buffalo Girls (2012) offers moments of hope but they do not overcome what otherwise seems a sad situation. Buffalo Girls follows two of the 30,000 child boxers in Thailand. Stam and Pet are just under 10 years old, and both girls fight to help their families. For Stam she hopes to help her…
‘The Boxing Girls of Kabul’ Show Courage in and out of the Ring
The Boxing Girls of Kabul (Ariel Nasr, 2011) begins with grainy shots of a stadium where women in chadris receive lashes and another has a gun pointed to the back of her head. Fortunately, the documentary cuts before the trigger is pulled. The startling footage sets the background for the dangers lurking for the girls…
‘Off and Running’ Explores Identity and Belonging
Questions of family, identity, and belonging run through Nicole Opper’s 2009 documentary Off and Running, which follows Avery Klein-Cloud’s attempts to find her own answers to them. Opper’s documentary brings us into Avery’s world through observational footage and voiceover, while interviews with friends and family expand on Avery’s life and observations. “Our family nickname is…
The Unpretty Side of the Modeling Industry in ‘Girl Model’
Girl Model shows the modeling industry as anything but beautiful. In fact, the whole industry appears pretty screwed up through the lens of this raw documentary. The insight into this industry comes from two perspectives: a model scout and a beginning model. Ashley is the model scout. She modeled for several years before moving to…