True/False Films

Gaea Girls

This film is fully or mostly subtitled.

In person: Kim Longinotto

Kim Longinotto has a preternatural ability to empathize with her subjects as the camera rolls. At a countryside retreat, she connects with young Japanese women as they are broken down and reinvented as superstars of professional wrestling. The fights may be choreographed, but the training is as intense as anything you'll ever see on film. Tears and blood flow in equal parts as the women demonstrate an astounding capacity to endure emotional and physical pain. Through it all, the camera is an unblinking witness, making us complicit in the sort of exquisite suffering Lars von Trier wishes he could capture. Gaea Girls is an unheralded gem of verité cinema and deserves a place among the legends of the genre. (DW)