Gaea Girls
Directed by Jano Williams, Kim Longinotto
Synopsis
A film about courage, transformation and dreams in the extraordinary world of Japanese women’s wrestling. Gaea Girls focuses on the hopes and fears of the beleaguered Gaea Japan squad, whose reputation hangs by a thread after a series of setbacks in the ring. There is the spindly 16-year old who spent three years persuading her parents to let her join, the new recruit who ran away but has returned begging for a second chance, and the rookie desperate to make her debut in the ring. At the centre of the film is the tough but popular trainer who – with her own very particular philosophy and personal history – rules the girls, trying to fashion them in her own image.