True-Hearted Vixens

After the initial surprise wears off, True-Hearted Vixens looks like a role-reversal of Oliver Stone's football drama Any Given Sunday: the same tough locker room talk, burly linebackers roaming the zone, and running backs punching it in from the one-yard line--except they're women. Unfortunately, the crowds aren't as big as the dreams and ambitions of the committed pioneer female athletes who've come from all over the country (leaving jobs and family obligations) to create a league of their own. Producer Mylene Moreno's documentary chronicles the efforts to establish a Women's Professional Football League (WPFL) in 1999, examining the struggles and stereotypes surrounding gender inequality through the prism of the indisputably male-dominated arena of professional football. The film follows the Minnesota Vixens and Lake Michigan Minx on a first-season, six-game exhibition schedule to drum up support for the league, focusing on 33-year-old Vixens wide receiver Kertria “Moochie” Lofton, an amateur basketball player and single mother, and 24-year old Minx linebacker Jane Bolin, a former political consultant who's also volunteered to help with publicity efforts. Interviews with the players are combined with coverage of training, practice and games, revealing the players' gradual frustration with the rampant disorganization, lack of publicity (only one game is covered by the local press), and a few enduring stereotypes, including Hooters-style models helping with the endorsements. Adding fiscal injury to the insults: the athletes have agreed to pay room and board in exchange for one quarter of one percent of the tour's never-to-be seen profits. An unusual and interesting film, sure to be welcome in women's and gender studies, sociology, and popular culture collections, this is recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (A. Cantú)