By now the formula for this kind of documentary is familiar. Pick a bunch of kids to follow as they engage in a major competition. Spellbound, the spelling-bee movie from 2002, set the standard for this. Here the sport is golf, the competitors are seven and eight years old, and international, and competition is an annual one in North Carolina. The director, Josh Greenbaum, profiles five of the boys and three of the girls. You’ll probably have your favorites. Mine were Zamokuhle Nxasana, a South African boy hoping to improve on his 43rd-place finish of the previous year, and Sky Sudbury, a petite Texas blonde. (Nxasana father notes that, not so long ago, the boy would not have been able to compete; the country has changed so much that his father has to explain apartheid when they go to a museum.) The biggest personality seems to belong to Allan Kournikova, whose sister is the tennis star Anna, and who had already won the previous year.
Greenbaum nicely divides the film, with half set during the competition. He adds TV-style narration to pace things along and explain. There are (minor) tantrums, penalties, and everything else you’d see on an adult golf course, but the kids are a little quirkier and less polished. The kids, not the golf, are the main subject. It’s a great movie to see with some kids.
IMDb link
viewed 10/18/13 7:15 pm at Ritz East [Philadelphia Film Festival]
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