November 15, 2008 - If you can’t wait until next year to see your fave tennis players in action, a documentary film was released this week in Serbia called “Jelena’s World.”
Apparently cameras followed #1 player Jelena Jankovic around for more than a year to capture what exactly a tennis player’s life looks like behind the scenes. Producers hope that the 80-minute film, directed by Tanja Brzakovic, will be distributed worldwide.
The 23-year old Jankovic secured the year-ending women’s number one ranking with three successive titles in recent months though she has yet to win a Grand Slam title.
“Although a fighter, mentally and physically strong, she is not a super-hero, but above all, natural and honest… and the director recognises it skillfully,” a review in the [Serbian] Politika newspaper said. “She will laugh at herself, cry over sad memories, swear if she is angry, be shy about intimate details, and that is why she is a perfect movie hero,” film critic Dubravka Lakic wrote in the daily.
So what is life really like for JJ? Check out the trailer to find out: (btw - it might help to understand a bit of Serbian)
In this segment, Nyad recounts the Women’s Sports Foundation recent celebration of the great female athletes who served as the inspiration for Penny Marshall’s 1992 film A League of Their Own. The tribute sounds like it was heartfelt and even a few tears were shed. But wait…there’s no crying in baseball.
October 2, 2008 - Actress Dakota Fanningjust took on her toughest role. She became a cheerleader at her high school. After being homeschooled for most of her life, Dakota recently enrolled in a private school in Los Angeles where she wanted to get a full sense of the school community. What better way to acclimate socially then to join the cheerleading squad?
‘I am a cheerleader. Now everybody always wants me to do cheers. It’s so funny.
Cheerleading is so much fun, especially at your school because you get such a sense of school spirit and you’re proud of your school. I love that. I’m the one that’s on top of the (human) pyramid; I’m the flyer, so that’s fun too.’
The 14 year old actress has had an incredible career, from her first role at five in a Tide commercial to her current star turn in The Secret Life of Bees (I haven’t seen the film yet but read the book and loved it - be sure to check it out).
With her latest stint as a cheerleader, Dakota is living Friday Night Lights and if the producers of Heroes ever need a replacement for Hayden Panetierre, they’ll know who to call.
August 10, 2008 - The H-Town Cyclones, the world champions of women’s pro football, will be hosting a press conference with Keke Palmer, star of the new Dimension Film, the Longshots. Starring Ice Cube and Keke Palmer, the movie is based upon a true story of the first girl to play Pop Warner football.
Palmer will sign autographs and take questions about the movie.
The H-Town Cyclones will also announce the dates for their girl’s football camps. “This is a wonderful opportunity for little girls to come and meet one of the hottest young stars in the movies and on the Disney channel and to meet many of the top female women football players in the world. ”
The H-Town (Texas) Cyclones are the top women’s football team in the world having just won the world championship last month in Memphis. We believe this movie will really get young girls excited about playing full contact football,” states Catherine Masters, President of the National Women’s Football Association and the National Girl’s Football Association.
The press conference will be held at the YMCA (Galleria Area) 1331 Augusta Drive Houston, Texas on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 at noon. Media and the general public are invited.
April 12, 2008 - One of the highlights of the recent Berlin Film Festival was a documentary called “Football Under Cover” about a women’s soccer match played in Tehran between Iranian and German teams in 2006.
Filmmaker Ajat Najafi and his German colleague David Assmann’s directed the project, whose title refers to the fact thatboth teams had to cover up during the match - even though men weren’t allowed into the stadium.
From the Berlin programme comes this synopsis:
Iran’s national women’s team and a local Berlin women’s football team are playing their first official friendly match – before a crowd of more than a thousand cheering women. The atmosphere at the stadium is electric and super-charged with girl power. Outside the stadium, a few men peer through the fencing, trying to catch a glimpse of the proceedings, because on this day, men are barred from the game.Although their only desire was to play football together, it has taken the young women of both teams a whole year of bitter struggle to get where they are today. Theirs has been a battle against testosterone, arbitrariness and oppression. This film follows Marlene, left-back of the Kreuzberg club BSV AL-Dersimpor, and Iranian player Niloofar on their journey. The girls don’t just want to play a game; they want to get to know each other.
In spite of the game being postponed time and again, and the fact that the women are not able to play in Asia’s largest football stadium as planned, but on a dried up old pitch; and although Niloofar is forbidden from taking part in the game – for reasons which nobody understands – the girls refuse to be browbeaten. And, when the big day arrives, there’s singing and dancing on the grandstands. This 90-minute film is more than just a football game. The desire for self-determination and equality is being expressed here and, one thing is clear – change is possible.
If you’re interested in the topic, you might want to also check out Offside, director Jafar Panahi’s offbeat tale about a group of Iranian girls who find themselves arrested after posing as boys to sneak into a soccer stadium to see a key international qualifying match. The film, apparently inspired by the director’s daughter, won the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival Grand Jury Prize in 2006.
March 16, 2008 - Set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Himalayas, Blindsight follows the gripping adventure of six Tibetan teenagers who set out to climb the 23,000 foot Lhakpa Ri on the north side of Mount Everest.
The dangerous journey documented in this film becomes a seemingly impossible challenge made all the more remarkable by the fact that the teenagers are blind.
One of the organizers of the climb is Sabriye Tenberken, blind since the age of 12, who is a Nobel Peace Prize Nominee, Mother Theresa Award recipient and Oprah’s personal choice on her show “Eight Women Oprah Wants You To Know.”
She’s joined by a group of Tibetan teens that includes two girls: Fifteen year old Sonam Bhumtso and eighteen year old Kyila.
The doc is directed by British filmmaker Lucy Walker, who won a Fulbright Scholarship to attend NYU’s graduate film program and went on to be nominated for two Emmys for BLUE’S CLUES. Quite a leap from Nickelodeon to what is often called the “roof of the world.”
Producer Sybil Robson-Orr hopes the film inspires audiences “to push through their personal boundaries and reach for their dreams.” We’re certainly inspired, both by the filmmaking team as well as the featured climbers - all pretty tough in our book!
March 07 2008 - After a brief round on the festival circuit Girls Rock!, opens in seven cities across the U.S. this week. The documentary film follows four girls of different ages from different parts of the country through their first year at Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls in Portland, Oregon. Check out the trailer now:
A raucous tale of female empowerment, the documentary became a three-year saga for Arne Johnson (co-director, co-editor, producer) and Shane King (co-director, co-editor, cinematographer), whose first collaboration was a Super 8mm movie in seventh grade.
Everyone knows boys easily conceive of themselves as budding rock stars when all they have is a few instruments, an amp, a total lack of musical knowledge and delusions of talent. Girls, the filmmakers learned, do not. In tracing the path of the leads through the transformative experience of rock camp, the filmmakers got a real education in what it’s like out there for girls. They discovered, among other things, what many books and studies have already described— that girls struggle with a bewildering and heartbreaking array of challenges to their self-image.
Feb. 25, 2008 - Juno scribe Diablo Cody, who was nominated along with two other female writers (a feat in and of itself), won the Oscar last night for Best Original Screenplay. Known for her non-conformity and non-traditional route to Hollywood (she came via a strip club in Minneapolis), her smart, sassy script about a pregnant teenager has garnered critical and popular acclaim.
As a big fan of the film we were disappointed, but not surprised, it didn’t win Best Picture (No Country for Old Men did) but were glad Cody was acknowledged for her writing. On Oscar night, her demeanor was softened somewhat by the million dollar diamond studded Stuart Weitzman shoes (she claims she was completely unaware of the value of the borrowed kicks). But more importantly, when she reached the podium to collect her statuette, pure emotion won out and Diablo demonstrated that even tough broads aren’t above shedding a tear. Congrats Cody - we love you!
Jan. 27, 2008 - Chak De India (translation: ”Come On India”) is a Hindi film about a women’s field hockey team. On the surface, the film is your basic, every-sports-movie-story about a disgraced player, here called Kabir Khan, who pulls together a team of misfits to do the impossible — here win the World Championship against the six-time trophy-winning Australian Women’s team.
Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan (aka King Khan), plays the coach at the heart of the film. According to international sources, Khan is bigger than Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt combined. Whoa - this guy’s hot! The script is inspired by the life of former Indian Hockey Goalkeeper and coach of the women’s Indian Hockey team, Mir Ranjan Negi, and his contribution in driving the women’s Indian Hockey team to win the 2002 Commonwealth Games held in Manchester.
We start when Kabir, India’s team captain and most successful Center Forward of all time, flubs a crucial penalty against Pakistan and is castigated by his nation. An Islamic last name and a meteoric temper don’t help his case and Kabir is labeled as a traitor involved in match fixing. He leaves his hometown along with his mother and goes into exile.
Jan. 22, 2008 - Academy-award nominated actorEllen Page (Juno) has been cast to star in the movie Whip It! Adapted from Shauna Cross’ young adult novel, Derby Girl, the movie also marks actress Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut.
Slated to begin shooting in Texas this summer, the story revolves around Bliss, an indie-rock adoring, dyed-hair teen who wants out of her stereotypical Texas town, filled with cheerleaders and beauty queens (including her Mom). Bliss makes her way to Austin where she joins a roller derby team and learns a thing or two about life and love. FYI, Cross is a real roller derby gal; who goes by the name Maggie Mayhem.
November 15, 2008 - If you can’t wait until next year to see your fave tennis players in action, a documentary film was released this week in Serbia called “Jelena’s World.”
, the movie also marks actress 
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