CURL POWER: Strength In Unity

In recent years, curling has grown in popularity. A mixed sport of bocce and shuffleboard on ice, curling delivers hypnotizing matches and intense challenges, the anticipation of a win never assured until the final rock has been pushed. Now, place this competitive sport to the backdrop of teenage youth, and the entire context of the sport changes. Premiering at this year’s Hot Docs Festival, Josephine Anderson‘s Curl Power follows a five-person team of teenage girls as they tackle their dreams of curling success, all while working to find their place in both sport and life.

Forming Identity

Early on, Curl Power captures the duality of the teenager, not quite an adult but not a child either. While this is stated early on, it is captured in the eyes of each of the girls. You see the wonderment as they watch their mentors perform at the Olympics, while also seeing the adult-infused resilience as they compete on the ice. Where curling provides stability in a tumultuous time of growth, it also gives a framework to the developing confidence of one’s identity.

Much of this identity is in the shared comraderies of athletes and friends. Together they share their dreams, insecurities, hopes for the futures, successes, and failures. Curl Power captures the power in the friendships depicted on screen, bodies intertwined in a sense of permanent sisterhood. Yet there is a sadness quietly lingering on the periphery, an adult awareness that not all of them will make it in the sport they pursue – and their friendships may not endure the fast-approaching change of times. In these moments, the documentary works to capture their own personal growing sense of identity.

One of the most defining aspects of definition captured is the perception of beauty. Body image is a constant topic of conversation, each of the girls expressing what they do not like about themselves and what they wish they were – at times the opinions of others further warping their own perceptions. This struggle with image is compounded as they are showcased on television for their competitions, their looks no longer confined to the walls of their adolescent reach, rather breaking out to an entire audience. It is in these moments, Curl Power captures not only the seeping insecurities and struggles of teens, but also the continued need for the strength and unity of those we trust.

Some Power Lost in Direction

Curl Power has the strength to be something unique, though it struggles at times to find the story that it wants to tell. Is this the story of a mother and daughter quietly struggling with the fight of cancer? A story of depression? Of curling? Is it primarily concerned with the struggles of youth and coming of age to the back drop of competition? As Curl Power struggles to find its identity, it finds it has to work even harder to dig deep to retain its audience.

In its struggle to find its identity and story, Curl Power will leave it audience wishing it had embraced more footage of the curling, giving the documentary a deeper sense of duality between the player and the teenager. Too often, limiting itself to life off the ice, Curl Power loses its strength, giving way to moments that feel more along the lines of filler rather than a fully realized view at the individual on screen.

Conclusion:

Curl Power has a deep awareness of the bonds of sisterhood that exist between the girls, yet is clever enough to also understand their individuality. They are filmed as a group, but also sectioned off into smaller units and alone, embracing the different dynamics that are encompassed. However, Curl Power at times seems to forget its direction, leaving too many of these moments feeling like filler and forgetting all too often the sport that would ultimately brought all these girls together.