ShortList 2023: In ‘Team Dream,’ Luchina Fisher Shines a Light on 2 ‘Incredible, Strong’ Older Black Women Swimmers
“Team Dream” was selected as a finalist in this year’s ShortList Film Festival, presented by TheWrap. You can watch the films and vote for your favorite here.
“Team Dream” documentarian Luchina Fisher knew as soon as she met her subjects Ann E. Smith and Madeline Murphy Rabb that they had a story to tell. Both women are competitive swimmers from Chicago who travel around the country for meets, where they have won dozens of medals. They both enjoyed long, impressive careers (Smith in academia and politics and Murphy Rabb in the art world) before discovering their athletic prowess later in life, post-retirement. Smith is 82 and Murphy Rabb is 76.
They came to competitive swimming through Team Dream, a Chicago-based athletic organization that trains women of color (of all ages) in a variety of sports and was founded by Derrick Milligan, a longtime friend of Fisher’s.
“Besides training BIPOC women in swimming, biking, running, walking, triathlon and multisport events, Team Dream is really this opportunity for them to gather and create community,” Fisher told TheWrap. “And out of that friendship [with Derrick], I learned about Ann and Madeline and their incredible journey. So I pitched it to the Queen Collective in 2022, they said yes and we started filming last year in April.”
The 17.5-minute documentary short (exec-produced by Queen Latifah’s aforementioned Collective) chronicles Smith and Murphy Rabb’s journey to the 2022 National Senior Games in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. But “Team Dream” is much more than an underdog sports story. It is also a tale of friendship and having the courage to pursue a dream, regardless of age or societal barriers — in this case, the structural racism that has denied Black Americans access to swimming and perpetuated the false idea that they are not swimmers.
Also Read:
ShortList 2023: Justine Martin Wanted the Focus of ‘Oasis’ to Be Brotherhood, Not Disability
Fisher’s film confronts that stereotype, exploring its roots in slavery, and brings to the fore the rich history of Africans’ relationship to the water.
“That was something that Derrick shared with me, prior to making the film, when he talked about Kevin Dawson’s scholarship and his research on Africans once being the warriors of the water,” Fisher said. “So I thought it was really important to bring that element in. I think that’s a big reveal for a lot of Black Americans, but also for them to feel like this notion, this stereotype that we’ve always grown up with, that Black people don’t swim — we were really good swimmers. And the reason that stereotype is prevalent is because of the barriers to access to water.”
Shot over a just few weeks last April and May, “Team Dream” premiered in August at Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival. The rapturous reception took the doc’s subjects by surprise. “They were like, ‘Oh, my God, what’s happening?'” Fisher said. “They have done so many things in their lives. But they had never been stars of a movie. They didn’t know what that experience was going to be like. So when they got their first standing ovation, they were like, ‘OK, we love this! Where else can we go?’
“What we were really interested in showing is the incredible, strong, competitive, athletic women that they are, that they are heroes,” she continued. “Sports films have a way of making heroes out of our athletes and Ann and Madeline, they’re heroes to people who are not athletes. They pushed me. They continue to help me recognize that even though I directed my first feature in my 50s, this is just the beginning. They’re in their 70s and 80s and are like, ‘Come on, sister. You got time.'”
Fisher’s previous films include “Mama Gloria,” a feature doc about the Black transgender activist Gloria Allen, and her next film, “The Dads,” is a short about the parents of transgender children premiering on Netflix this fall. While she will be in L.A. for the ShortList ceremony on July 12, Smith and Murphy Rabb will not. They will be in Pittsburgh, competing in the 2023 National Senior Games.
“I’ll be holding it down with the film,” Fisher said. “And they are doing their thing. They don’t stop. This is their life.”
The 2023 ShortList Film Festival runs online from June 28 – July 12, honoring the top award-winning short films that have premiered at major festivals in the past year. Watch the finalists and vote for your favorite here.
Also Read:
TheWrap’s ShortList Film Festival Returns June 28-July 12
