Life Is Not a Competition, But I'm Winning (2023)
Life Is Not a Competition, But I'm Winning
”A collective of queer athletes challenges gender norms in sports at the Olympics in Athens.”
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Why watch this film?
Life is not a Competition, but I'm Winning is a sports documentary that challenges one of the most debated—and controversial—issues in professional sports in recent years: the rigidity of gender-based competitive divisions—male and female—with the resultant exclusion of transgender athletes. With a visual style that goes beyond typical sports documentaries, this production challenges these classifications while celebrating the triumphs of transgender women who have been denied the opportunity to compete and represent their disciplines—and even their nations—on the podium.
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Plot summary
If history is written by the victors, where does that leave those who were never allowed to be part of the game? A collective of queer athletes enters the Olympic Stadium in Athens and sets out to honour those who were excluded from standing on the winners’ podium. They meet Amanda Reiter, a trans* marathon runner who has to struggle with the prejudices of sports organisers, and Annet Negesa, a 800m runner who was urged by the international sports federations to undergo hormone-altering surgery. Together they create a radical poetic utopia far from the rigid gender rules found in competitive sports.
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