Volume 29 · Number 4 · Summer 2012
Sports
Cheryl Haworth is STRONG!
A new documentary by UC Davis filmmaker Julie Wyman tells an elite athlete's story of triumph and defeat.
Her film, STRONG!, airs on PBS' Independent Lens series on July 26, the day before the Olympic opening ceremonies. It features athlete Cheryl Haworth (pictured), a smart, funny, 300-pound, 5-foot-9 weightlifter. Haworth holds the Pan American records that ranked her highest in her sport, male or female.
"Thematically, this documentary is about having a body that doesn't fit," said Wyman, who teaches in the Cinema and Technocultural Studies Program. "It's about a body that is at once totally triumphant and successful and yet, in the scope of bodies that are conventionally thought of as a healthy, beautiful, and athletic, Cheryl is definitely outside the box."
The film is also is about disappointment. Haworth, who has been competing since she was a young teen, built up to a record-breaking lift of 161 kilos or 354.2 pounds during the Pan-American Weightlifting Championships in 2005. She won a bronze medal at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, and was expected to take one of the top three medals in 2008 at Beijing. But injuries, the bane of athletes, intervened.
"It became more complicated," Wyman admits. "What I thought was going to be a film about what it is like to be an athlete and a person who strives at the very top level became a story about grappling with both success and failure."
The film is also is about disappointment. Haworth, who has been competing since she was a young teen, built up to a record-breaking lift of 161 kilos or 354.2 pounds during the Pan-American Weightlifting Championships in 2005. She won a bronze medal at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, and was expected to take one of the top three medals in 2008 at Beijing. But injuries, the bane of athletes, intervened.
“It became more complicated,” Wyman admits. “What I thought was going to be a film about what it is like to be an athlete and a person who strives at the very top level became a story about grappling with both success and failure.”
Making this film has been a testament to Wyman’s patience. Intrigued by Haworth’s performance at the Sydney Olympics, Wyman started the film in 2004—one year before she joined UC Davis as an assistant professor in the Technocultural Studies Program. Her unfinished film was selected in 2011 by the PBS series Independent Lens, lifting her into the upper echelon of international film artists who make single, crafted stories. In fact, only 23 documentaries were selected for Independent Lens’ current season.
This selection by PBS comes three years after Wyman was offered a coveted co-production agreement with the Independent Television Service, a branch of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The vote of confidence has offered great benefits: It provided Wyman access to filmmaking mentors, editors, advice and—importantly, funding. Wyman has had to raise more than $500,000 to make the film. The bulk of that support has come from ITVS, with significant support from UC Davis as well. On the strength of STRONG!, Wyman, who teaches documentary film making in the Cinema and Technocultural Studies Program, gained tenure this year.
Before the film’s television broadcast, about 75 showings were also planned in community centers, theaters and museums across the nation. Wyman and her star, Haworth, anticipated attending a dozen of the events, joining in audience discussions.
Wyman said she was looking forward to hearing viewers’ reactions. “When you finish a film, it’s a ‘when a tree falls’ situation,” Wyman says. “You wait until the audience hears it to know what it sounds like, which issues and questions resonate.”
After spending the past seven years on this effort, Wyman is ready to try shorter, serial films on the topic of plus size clothing fashion. And this summer, as a special treat, she’s looking forward to staying home and watching the Olympics on television, an activity she hasn’t been able to do for many years.