Educational Media Reviews Online

Making It is a short film that interviews four female Australian athletes on what it means to “make it” in terms of success in their sport. One of the athletes is a professional surfer, another a netball player, another a rugby player, and the last a slopestyle skier. The stories these women relate are not tales of glory, however. All four of them have experienced or are experiencing setbacks or misfortunes. Examples include missing the Olympics due to a major injury, and dealing with the emotions that come with a career that started out strong, but never got the Cinderella ending of a championship.

Making It is not recommended. While the film raises the wonderful question of “what is success?” in a sports career (that can easily be extended to any profession), it fails to deliver a satisfying answer. Due to the short run time of 18 minutes, there simply is not enough time to convey the depth and breadth of what the filmmakers want to explore. The women in the film have deep lives, but the film only takes the time to give the shallowest exploration of how they define success. Further, the film makes only cursory mentions of the extra difficulties faced by women in the world of sports. Making It has promise, but it is ultimately an incomplete work.

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