I've finally had time to watch the film and thought it was amazing. I've actually worked in Indonesia and had a chance to surf some of the Lombok breaks and I'm in awe of the women and girls in this film - Indo is a massively patriarchal society, even in Bali.
I loved the wee MXer girl - she seemed like a right stroppy teenager and was caning into the berms with her sleeves up and her arse out without a care. The DHer was excellent and the surfer was lovely, I loved the shot of her cliff diving with her board.
Most importantly for me were the quotes at the end from "Women, Sport and Development", a paper by Martha Saavedra at UCB, available here.
I'm not really sure how to articulate this, but I think that perhaps women in sport, and more importantly the transformative possibilities of sport and how women think about their bodies is something that has not been really discussed in feminist circles. I really think that the physical gap between men and women is far smaller than is generally accepted and that much of the perceived physical gap is due to conditioning from a very early age ("girls can't throw, sit with your legs together, don't flash your knickers, be nice and quiet, don't play with the rough boys, play with your dolly instead etc.")
My DS is only small but I want him to grow up knowing that women like Ellen Macarthur, Katie Brown, Vicky Pendleton are just as admirable as any male athlete.
Also, do I get extra saddo points for guessing "climber, MTBer, surfer" from the opening closeups of womens' hands :)
fluffles - derby IS fun. There are plenty of derby leagues in the UK, there might be one near you! Good intro