Jason Sondhi
While staying out of the contentious debate on whether Netflix is the savior or destroyer of indie film, I have to admit that I love the abbreviated release windows that the mega-corp supplies. After its premiere at SXSW 2018, the Netflix Original, First Match, premiered on the platform last Friday, a scant 3 weeks after its festival screening. Well-received out of the fest and in its first few days on the platform, we decide today to look back on writer/director Olivia Newman’s 2011 short film upon which the feature is based.
A sports movie with a feminist tilt, the short centers on Mo, a 14 year old black girl growing up in Brownsville, New York. Mo is the only female on her school wrestling team and, on top of that stress, she has a complicated relationship with her father. An ex-wrestler himself, he bonds with his daughter over the sport they mutually love, yet the idea of his girl competing in a masculine sport sits uneasily within him—a messy mix of pride, concern and disgust, which causes him to oscillate between nurturing Mo and pushing her away. Mo finds herself navigating this fraught relationship, fervently seeking approval, while also dealing with the drama and stress inherent in her unique status as the only girl in a combat sport.
In the previous paragraph I lead with referring to First Match as a sports movie, but in a podcast with No Film School this morning, Newman (speaking about the feature) refers to an idea I really like—she has created a sports movie within a personal narrative rather than the other way around. The wrestling sequences (even in the short) are incredibly well-executed—physical and violent, they are shot in a kinetic style that transmits the power and skill involved. Yet it is the the father-daughter relationship that makes the short sing. The film, created while Newman was studying film at Columbia, is recognizably a New York student film stylistically and thematically: the focus on an under-privileged protagonist, the murky color grade, the subtle handheld camera work that is close-in and immediate upon its actors, allowing them to communicate a lot of emotional subtext that is written into the script, but never explicitly addressed. The sports angle is a hook, but it is wonderfully incidental to the character work that is Newman’s focus.
Due to this focus, much of the short’s success hinges upon the young, non-professional actress Nyasa Bakker who plays Mo. While not a showy performance, Bakker impressively communicates the gradations and contradictions of her character: toughness versus vulnerability, masculinity and femininity, confidence and doubt. A wrestler herself, Bakker eventually competed in college, and it is a shame in my mind that she was recast for the feature, but the passage of time during development no doubt caused her to age out of consideration (and Elvire Emmanuelle ends up giving a terrific performance in her stead).
We’re always curious about how short adaptations come about, and while we haven’t talked to Newman, a peek at her website shows an artful navigation of America’s indie development infrastructure even before Netflix came in to fund the feature. After a successful festival run for the short which saw it pick up a prize as Best Student Film from Aspen Shortsfest and play PBS television as part of Film School Shorts, Newman became the recipient of numerous hi-profile grants and fellowships, winning the IFP/Durga Foundation Filmmaker Award, the Adrienne Shelly Foundation filmmaker grant, the Maryland Filmmakers fellowship, and spots in both the Sundance Director and Screenwriter Labs. Newman additionally got funding from a who’s who of institutions: the Sundance Institute, HBO, the Tribeca Film Institute, the San Francisco Film Society, and The Caucus Foundation, as well as support from IFP and Film Independent.
It’s harder than ever for short-form filmmakers to get their first features made, but Newman’s short served as a great proof-of-concept, and the multi-year development process she endured, and the institutional support she garnered along the way, shows a tenacity on her part and an ability to navigate the byzantine structures of the industry that should hold her in great stead going forward in her career. As we talk about the lack of opportunity afforded to young female talent in the current film industry, it’s inspiring to see a work like First Match emerge with a complicated and rich female protagonist of color, written and directed by a woman, and employing women in key positions of DP, Editor, Producer. Kudos to Newman! Watch the short, check out the feature, and let us know what you think.