Basketball: the final day of March Madness

 

The first full-colour Chinese sports film and an example of how “state feminism” was promoted through popular media, often in opera but also in more humanist form.

Within the boundaries of Sharon Lockhart's static camera, girls from Goshogaoka junior high school practice basketball. In six uninterrupted 10 minute scenes, we see them warm up and train several typical moves, shots, and blocks. With the camera set in one position, some of the action happens off-screen, resulting in unrehearsed synchronised choreography.