Critics Week - Mostra del Cinema di Venezia

“Life Is Not A Competition, But I Am Winning”, interview with the director Julia Fuhr Mann

September 9, 2023

Julia Fuhr Mann, director, "Life Is Not A Competition, But I Am Winning". A creative and compelling documentary on gender definition in competitive sports.

"Life Is Not A Competition, But I Am Winning", interview with the director Julia Fuhr Mann Angelo Acerbi

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In “Life Is Not A Competition, But I Am Winning” by Julia Fuhr Mann, the issue of gender in competitive sports is deeply analysed, starting from the beginning, the first cases on misgendered sport persons in the history, from the Olympics down to any kind of competitive meeting. “Life Is Not A Competition, But I Am Winning” by Julia Fuhr Mann has been presented in Venice Critics Week section 2023.

Unbendable rules and misunderstandings

What “Life Is Not A Competition, But I Am Winning” shows is that rules in sports are difficult to modify, and the gender fluidity is still nowadays an issue that shake and worry so much that any decision in that field is restrictive and violent.

Contemporary sport people to learn about the past

The idea is to meet some contemporary trans and gender non conforming athletes to discuss the modern situation compared to the ones in the past, going to visually meet them , in an surreal but effective way, to create a bond between different generations.

Plot

If victory is written by 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.

Written by: Angelo Acerbi

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