This week, DOXA Documentary Film Festival presented their 2nd Annual Free Outdoor Screening at Robson Square. “Pistol Shrimps” was a fan favourite during the 2016 DOXA Festival and the screening on Wednesday brought the film to even more fans. To get the audience in the bball mood, early arriving spectators were treated to a display of basketball skills by the UBC Thunderbirds Women’s Basketball Team before the film started
Canadian filmmaker Brent Hodge’s documentary follows the Pistol Shrimps, a women’s intramural basketball team in Los Angeles. A ragtag group of women have come together to revive the women’s recreational league in LA and come away with new skills, new friends and new confidence. The Pistol Shrimps include musicians, comediennes, writers, and actresses, like Audrey Plaza, with little or no basketball skills but with a great love of the game and competition. For some it’s a return to team sports they played in high school, for others it’s a chance to have a team experience they missed out on through their childhood. For most it’s an opportunity to gain genuine female camaraderie that is lacking in Los Angeles especially in the entertainment industry.
Humour plays throughout the film but the players take their sport and the Pistol Shrimps with complete seriousness. While it’s a funny film, the director never plays the subjects for laughs, instead telling a true tale of a group of naturally funny women playing on a serious team.
If you get the chance to catch the film at a festival near you, jump at the chance! Watch for more DOXA Screenings throughout the year leading up to the 2017 Festival May 4 – 14, 2017.