Life is not a competition, but I’m winning

DOCUMENTARY WITH FICTIONAL ELEMENTS – 79 MIN – 2023

Documentary films have a preference for showing their protagonists while suffering. This way of narration is usually done with the best of intentions – and yet such a cinematic approach does not change the conditions, but rather reproduces them and thus even reinforces them.

In this film suffering and pain merge into a vision of queer community that ends up being more powerful than the violence which was committed. Narrating such utopian moments is not the convenient way, since unlike the brutal reality, it is not just in front of us – but it is necessary to gradually uncover these aspects in the cinematic process. In doing so, we have to invent visual worlds that open up space for the unseen and transfer the utopian aspects into tactile cinematic embodiments.

The entire composition of our film team was also a political decision. Almost all positions are taken by women, queer people and people of color – not only for reasons of representation, but also because the incorporation of the experiences of all participants and the atmosphere during the shooting were essential for our project.

Synopsis

Nearly no other part of society is still so rigidly separated by gender as the world of sports. This not only affects the athletes, but also significantly shapes the gender perception of millions of spectators.

In a mixture of fiction, documentary and archival footage, this film whirls up the stereotypical gender categories in competitive sports.

We accompany Amanda Reiter, a trans marathon runner from the Bavarian province, and Annet Negesa, an 800-meter runner from Uganda. Both are confronted with the restrictive gender concepts of sports and are trying to free themselves out of them. The documentary layer of the film is interwoven with fictional moments, in which a group of athletes forms a queer-feminist collective envisioning a world beyond stereotypical gender categories. A colourful utopia in cinemascope.

Crew & Cast

directed by Julia Fuhr Mann  cinematography Caroline Spreitzenbart  sound design Cornelia Böhm  gaffer Janne Ebel  1st AC Nadja Krüger  on-set sound Rhys Anderson  costume design Angela Queins  set design Sonja Schreiber, Mireia Vila Soriano  make-up artist Mai Strathmann  editing Merit Giesen, Melanie Jilg  vfx artists Isabelle Kramer, Fabian Peitzsch  graphic design Anna Lind Haugaard  dramaturgical advice Lena Hatebur, Susanne Bieger  3sat/ZDF Katya Mader  producer Melissa Byrne  production Sophie Ahrens, Fabian Altenried, Kristof Gerega 

with Annet Negesa, Amanda Reiter, Caitlin Fisher, Daniel Marin Medina, Chun Mei Tan, Eva Maria Jost, Jakob Levi Stahlberg, Oumou Aidara, Greta Graf

funded by FFF Bayern  winner of ARRI postproduction award  winner of British Pathé Archive Award  part of Locarno First Look  part of Into the Wild Mentoring

© Schuldenberg Films / University of Television and Film Munich / ZDF / 2023

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