We went to the final movie screened at the festival, which was called, "Hardball, the Girls of Summer." It was so disappointing, for multiple reasons: 1) it lacked a clear narrative and long sections were clips from ballgames that had nothing to do with any of the players profiled; 2) it had mixed messages, encouraging women's only baseball teams while providing evidence in the stories told that contradicted the assertion that they are needed; 3) we learned that the official rules for "women's baseball" "dumb down" the game, having these awesome, strong, amazing athletes play only seven innings and on smaller fields and with different bats than the men. I don't know much about fields or bats, but I do know that every study shows that women have more endurance than men, so the reduced number of innings seems to just pander to a sexist paradigm. K audibly booed (I know, rude) while the rest of the audience cheered. I have a lot more to ponder as we process the interesting multi-generational conversations we had following that...But... it was good to support the idea of making movies about awesome women in sports and it was fun to be together with the women in my life (mother, daughters, and niece) who inspire me. K has her own local baseball 'firsts' while of course Mom and I are the first mother-daughter team to run marathons on every continent. Completely different from the amazing athletes who were profiled in the movie, but nice to stand on a red carpet and celebrate the girls/women I personally admire (and love) anyway.
