October 29: Raise the Bar + I Want to Make a Film About Women
This week’s film is Raise the Bar, directed by Gudjon Ragnarsson. And keep reading to hear about this week’s short film!
In 2015, a basketball team for girls was formed in Iceland with an experienced, unconditional coach constantly raising the bar. Trained as leaders off the field, and like professional athletes on the field, they kept winning until they weren’t allowed to compete with the boys anymore. This is a story of 8-13 year old girls and a coach who wanted to change the paradigm in womens basketball in Iceland.
Radnarsson closely followed the team for five years to capture the girls’ growth. In that time, he went from just wanting to run onto the field and give them a hug after seeing their coach’s lecturing. “I come from the sports world, and I’d never seen that kind of intensity,” the director said. But by the end, the power completely shifted.
“My motive for making this film is to show people what kids are capable of… This will not be a film about how shitty things are, it will be about people who are actually trying to change things and make a difference.”
Raise the Bar shows live footage of the training, meetings and tournaments, and features narration with interviews and personal chats that the girls have with each other. It’s an inspiring story, winning the ECFA Documentary Award at the International Film Festival for Young Audiences.
We also have a short film to show you all…
Directed by Karen Pearlman, I Want to Make a Film About Women is a queer, speculative documentary love letter to Russian constructivist women. It asks what the revolutionary female artists of the 1920s said, what they did, and what they might have created had it not been for Stalin's suppression.
It’s the third short film by Pearlman about female Soviet filmmakers and editors. It combines dance, abstract imagery, animation, graphics, film montage, and music, and was nominated for Best Short Film at three festivals including the Sydney Film Festival and the AACTA Awards.
If you’re an IFS member, you can catch this extra-special double feature THIS SUNDAY, 29 October at 7pm at the Gala! See you on the weekend.
