If you’re just as likely to cry as you are to stand up and cheer during a sports documentary (guilty), this Oscilloscope Laboratories‘ award winner may be the next film to get you out of your seat while blinking away tears. Suzannah Herbert makes her directorial debut with “Wrestle,” which was co-directed by Lauren Belfer. Both filmmakers have previously worked with Michael Moore, but this looks more in line with “Hoop Dreams” than that director’s political films.
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After premiering at the 2018 San Francisco International Film Festival, “Wrestle” went on to play a number of other fests. It racked up awards from audiences and juries alike, including the Best Documentary Award and the Alice Guy-Blaché Award for Emerging Female Filmmaker at the Oxford Film Festival.
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Here’s the official synopsis:
Hoop Dreams goes to the mat in this intimate, coming-of-age documentary about four members of a high-school wrestling team at Huntsville’s J.O. Johnson High School, a longstanding entry on Alabama’s list of failing schools. Coached by teacher Chris Scribner, teammates Jailen, Jamario, Teague, and Jaquan each face challenges far beyond a shot at the State Championship: splintered family lives, drug use, teenage pregnancy, mental health struggles, and run-ins with the law threaten to derail their success on the mat and lock any doors that could otherwise open. Tough-love coach Scribner isn’t off the hook, either; he must come to terms with his own past conflicts while unwittingly wading into the complexities of race, class, and privilege in the South. Director Suzannah Herbert and Co-Director Lauren Belfer captured over 650 hours of footage during the course of the team’s final season to create this closely observed, deeply affecting depiction of growing up disadvantaged in America today.
Oscilloscope Laboratories opens “Wrestle” February 22 in NY, and March 1 in LA. Watch the trailer below.
