Training Rules (2008) +

A compelling and poignant account of the decades of homophobic discrimination within the Penn State Women’s Basketball program during the years in which the team and the were program led revered coach, Rene Portland (who insisted “No Drinking! No Drugs! No Lesbians!”). Professionally filmed and edited. Generally well executed. Utterly conventional in style and structure. Stylistically, the film feels more like a television documentary (or an extended series on something like HBO Real Sports) than a more cinematic one. The six athletes profiled offer a productively diverse glimpse into the impact of the discrimination (the activist, the one whose life was nearly ruined, the former closet case, the straight one) but the film suffers for its singular focus/emphasis on the program at Penn State. Some might fault the film for not giving voice to “the other side” of this conflict, but what bothers me more is lack of a more meaningful national context for Penn State. The story feels at times like a (well-earned) hatchet job on Rene Portland, while only glancing toward the other sports or other programs and they way lesbians have been discriminated there as well. My favorite moments in the film reached toward some compelling, unexplored aspects of homophobic discrimination in women's sport (1: the discussion of "ponytails" and the shifting gender styles of women's athletics; 2: the reference to men coaching women's teams as a way of guarding against lesbians in the game). I love documentaries about lesbians in sport; I just wish they didn't all have to be so darn conventional. An important story/history competently conveyed, but lacking both the depth and breadth to really make it great.