00:00Hi, I'm Levi Chambers with Pride and Gay 80.
00:04Hello, everyone. I'm so excited to be here today. I actually just watched
00:08Res Ball this weekend, and I thought it was great. I only have six minutes,
00:12so I just want to jump in, but both the Native American
00:16and LGBTQ plus communities have fought for visibility and
00:20representation, and this question is for all three of you, and I'm hoping you can each answer.
00:24How do you feel like Res Ball contributes
00:28to the larger conversation about intersectionality and the importance
00:32of telling these diverse stories on screen?
00:36Yeah, you know, I think having the chance
00:40to tell a story like this is, you know,
00:44it's about a community that
00:48a lot of people maybe aren't as familiar with, and so
00:52whenever you're dealing with people from marginalized communities,
00:56like I think for myself, whether it's queer stories,
01:00whether it's, you know, the sports movie genre, you know, I think one of the things
01:04that I really try to focus on is the humanity of the characters, you know, because that's
01:08the thing that we all have in common. That's the universal aspect of
01:12a story that can invite people in who
01:16may not be from that specific
01:20walk of life to identify with a character, with a situation,
01:24to empathize, to sympathize. So I think really for us
01:28it was about focusing on the humanity of the characters and their situations,
01:32whether they're queer, whether they're straight, you know, hopefully that
01:36invites people in to, you know, root for somebody
01:40in the story.
01:43One thing that I personally loved, yeah, like my character alone, but, you know,
01:47there's, it's not just mine, there's JoJo's character too, but I love how
01:51Sydney chose to just normalize
01:55the characters by they just are, as opposed to it being like
01:59this issue in the plot line or something. And I think that has like
02:03the beautiful reverse effect, you know, psychologically of
02:07how you humanize other human beings. And it doesn't matter
02:11your sexual orientation or how you identify, but that it just is.
02:15This is our world. And I think Sydney did
02:19a brilliant job of normalizing that by how Heather Hobbs just happens to be,
02:23you know, to have a female partner, you know, it just is.
02:27So, and I love that. And that's how I always think the world
02:31should be, you know, we just are whoever we want to be.
02:35It's like not a plot line. Yeah.
02:37Well, and I think one thing I want to add to as well too, you know, like
02:41Jess was mentioning, you know, we have a character on the team who is openly gay,
02:45you know, like in the story, you know, and in real
02:49life. And, you know, it was important for me that, you know, we sort of
02:53embrace that and I wanted the team to embrace it as well too.
02:57And so we were able to portray that, I feel like in a very sort of
03:01positive, healthy manner. And it wasn't, you know, in the film,
03:05a character being gay in the locker room wasn't an
03:09issue, you know, and it wasn't in real life either, you know,
03:13so those are little things where it's like, you know, you can shine a light on
03:17something by not shining a light on it and by normalizing it.
03:21Did you have anything to add?
03:25I think they both said it perfectly.
03:29Yeah. Another thing that I really felt came through really
03:33strong in the film is this idea of chosen family, which I know happens a lot in
03:37sports, right? Like your team is your chosen family, but it's also something that's very
03:41central to the LGBT plus experience.
03:45Maybe I'll start with you. How do you
03:49feel that the film reflects that theme in particular and do you feel
03:53like it's represented in the way that the team kind of comes together through all of the trials and
03:57tribulations? I don't want to see any spoilers. I think while snowballing off
04:01of what Sydney was saying about the other queer character that we have
04:05openly on the team, I think that's a great representation of
04:09you know, it doesn't matter where you come from, you're accepted.
04:13You know, that's your family and that is a safe haven for you.
04:17You know, and I think basketball in general within a lot of
04:21Indigenous communities, that safe is sacred in its own right.
04:25But I love how by having a character like JoJo's in the storyline
04:29is also kind of re-emphasizing that
04:33you know, there isn't this bullying thing that always happens on basketball teams
04:37and especially in underrepresented communities. Sometimes they
04:41really are just accepted and that's what you were raised with. I know like
04:45growing up on my basketball teams too, we had a lot of gay people on our team too
04:49and it was never an issue. You know, and I'm from an older
04:53generation too, so I think there's also that to be said that it was very
04:57normalized for me growing up. So it's nice that that's being
05:01spotlighted and highlighted in this film too, which is kind of in a way
05:05innovative in itself.
05:09Sydney, did you want to add anything before we wrap up? Yeah, no, I think
05:13it's an interesting sort of
05:17topic, you know, the parallels of the chosen family. I hadn't quite
05:21thought of it because I can think of very different experiences
05:25but there are definitely a lot of parallels. I think
05:29at the end of the day, we all kind of crave community
05:33and we all kind of need people in our corner and nobody wants
05:37to be an island. Nobody wants to be alone.
05:41I think at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter what your walk
05:45of life is. It's like who can you have behind you?
05:49Who can you have supporting you? I think sports is
05:53such a great outlet for that.
05:57I'm racking my brain thinking of all these other parallel experiences but no, it's
06:01a great point. Thank you very, very much for
06:05joining me today. I really appreciate all of your time.
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