"Flat Track Around the World" - An Epic Documentary & Derby Adventure

Follow the journey as three female filmmakers from Portland, Oregon travel the world in search of the soul of woman's flat track roller derby.

On March 23, 2013, we had the very great honor of speaking at the 2013 TEDx event at Concordia University. The theme of the event was “velocity,” which is a measurement of an object’s speed and direction. We definitely had lots to say about how roller derby can affect the speed and direction of a woman’s life, as well as the power of women to change the speed and direction of human civilization around the globe.

"Flat Track Around the World" - An Epic Documentary & Derby Adventure

Follow the journey as three female filmmakers from Portland, Oregon travel the world in search of the soul of woman's flat track roller derby.

Once upon a time, in TEDx land…

We finally gave our TEDx talk last Saturday, after months and months of preparation. What a crazy roller coaster adventure. In trying to craft just the right talk we pulled our hair out, drank too much coffee, laughed, cried, flipped tables, and lost lots of sleep. We enlisted friends, acquaintances and strangers to help us refine our message. We had multiple work sessions and rehearsals. We drafted several possible versions of the talk, some drastically different than others, and still it just wasn’t quite right. Then Cynthia said one day, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we could just start with ‘Once upon a time…’?” To which I replied, “Yes. Yes, it would.” After that, the talk practically wrote itself.

We are so honored to be part of the magical TEDx community now! Michelle Jones and the rest of the TEDXConcordiaUPortland team are absolutely amazing. It was a LOT of fun to be part of this event and to meet the incredible speakers and volunteers.

The video of our talk should be available in a few weeks and, rest assured, we will promptly post the crap out of the link as soon as we can! In the meantime, check out the photos (courtesy of Garrett Downen) in our Photo Gallery.

"Flat Track Around the World" - An Epic Documentary & Derby Adventure

Follow the journey as three female filmmakers from Portland, Oregon travel the world in search of the soul of woman's flat track roller derby.

What is Postcards from Dreamland?

Postcards from Dreamland is a collection of dreams (from Juvie, Cynthia, or anyone else) related to our epic quest.

Episode 4: Medicine Man

The other night I dreamt that Juvie and I were making our film in a foreign land, a place like Tahiti that is warm and surrounded by water.  We were hanging out after a day of filming in a local restaurant that also felt a little like someone’s home, with dark brown carved wood inside and beautiful plants outside that were turning darker green in the twilight.  It was so home feeling that I was reclining on a loveseat and chatting with Juvie who was sitting nearby.  There were several other people in the room, locals, but we were involved in our own conversation.

A man entered the room.  He was large, both wide and tall, an elder, with a serious look on his face.  He wore something like a loincloth, although with a bit more coverage, and was shirtless.  I knew immediately that he was a shaman.

He was intensely focused on Juvie and I.  He approached Juvie and took out a small tube of “medicine”, which was about the circumference of a lip gloss tube, but longer, and the medicine was slightly goopier than typical lip gloss.  He leaned down and pressed the medicine tube right to the side of Juvie’s nose bridge.  He held it there for a second or two.  I was both unsurprised that he had noticed and immediately approached Juvie, and relieved that he seemed to not notice me at all.

Then he turned his head to look at me, and his gaze pierced me.  I knew that I would be receiving some medicine as well.  He proceeded to press the medicine tube all over my face, holding for a second at a time, all at points that felt really good – maybe acupuncture points.  He finished with a final pressing to the side of my nose bridge.

I could tell I was starting to wake up at this point, and he could tell, too.  He had to speak fast.  He said, “June 14 of ‘14”.  I knew I was supposed to remember that date for some reason.  He was there to give us medicine, but also to share that information.

Analysis

Let’s have a party celebrating the completion of Flat Track Around the World on June 14, 2014!

"Flat Track Around the World" - An Epic Documentary & Derby Adventure

Follow the journey as three female filmmakers from Portland, Oregon travel the world in search of the soul of woman's flat track roller derby.

We are very happy and honored to announce that we’ll be giving a TEDx talk about Flat Track Around the World, journeys, magic, myth, transformation, and maybe a little Buffy the Vampire Slayer! Join us at Concordia University Portland on March 23rd, 2013 to hear our musings and receive untold inspiration from the other 19 speakers. Check out our speaker announcement on the TEDx website!

"Flat Track Around the World" - An Epic Documentary & Derby Adventure

Follow the journey as three female filmmakers from Portland, Oregon travel the world in search of the soul of woman's flat track roller derby.

What is Postcards from Dreamland?

Postcards from Dreamland is a collection of dreams (from Juvie, Cynthia, or anyone else) related to our epic quest.

Episode 3: The Mega Church

Last night, I dreamt that I was roller skating with other people around a vast and complicated track that wound its way through many rooms in an immense, modern mega church.  The church contained tons of different types of spaces, including a hippy lounge area, a kitchen/eatery, and spot where spectators could watch you skate on the church track, near a dangerous curve where people tended to crash when they were racing.  The skating that was going on was “about” Flat Track Around the World, this was understood by everyone, but nothing else in the dream seemed related to the film.

Sometimes people raced vintage pickup trucks around the track instead of skating.  I got into a pretty intense truck race with a grizzled older fellow who was attired in white undershirt, suspenders, and old jeans.  A grandpa figure.  It looked like he was going to beat me, so I accelerated and I knew I wouldn’t make the turn.  I crashed into the wall but it didn’t turn out to matter, I kept going around.

Analysis

Yoda would probably say that walls are not walls at all.  Also, maybe mega churches should consider adding flat tracks.

"Flat Track Around the World" - An Epic Documentary & Derby Adventure

Follow the journey as three female filmmakers from Portland, Oregon travel the world in search of the soul of woman's flat track roller derby.

Voila! Our super duper sizzle reel for Flat Track Around the World. Many thanks to Theresa Pridemore and Juvie Hall for bringing the force with them as we created this crazy thing. And special thanks to all of the derby players that we interviewed from the Tijuana Rollerderbygirls, Liga Roller Derby DF, Disasters MXRD, and Roller Derby Guadalajara for their extreme awesomeness.

"Flat Track Around the World" - An Epic Documentary & Derby Adventure

Follow the journey as three female filmmakers from Portland, Oregon travel the world in search of the soul of woman's flat track roller derby.

Filming for a month in Mexico was a weird experience. I’m still not sure what to think of it, or how to process it. I’ve been in a strange state of apathy/malaise ever since we returned to the states. It’s a lot of work to be “on” for that amount of time. I did not anticipate the emotional energy the trip would require, and I had no way to prepare for it.

Arriving in a new city, meeting anyone new, I had to assess what their pre-perceptions were of me—skater, American, “movie star,” from the biggest league in the world—and find a way to get past all that, find a way to cut through it so I could begin to relate to each person as a fellow human being. Then I had to assess their own personality and make-up—how can I most effectively relate to them? How can I get them to trust me? What kind of person are they? Will they be able to relate to us authentically, even when the camera is rolling? Are they involved with us because it seems glamorous and cool, or because they actually have something interesting to contribute to the project? Something unique or interesting to say about themselves, their culture, the sport, the world? Then after all that work of cutting through perceptions of me, cutting through the awkwardness of having just met, the difficulty of language and cultural barriers, their own personality quirks and defenses…then I had say, “Hey, now let me crawl into every corner of your life, and can I meet your grandma? Can I ask you about your very personal life views and goals? Can I ask you about crazy lofty cultural and political ideas? Oh, and can we get a ride to practice?”

This wasn’t just about interviewing people. It was about connecting with people in a very direct and intense fashion, over a long period of time, and with many, many people. That’s exhausting and confusing. It’s hard to negotiate that landscape. At the same time, I am just who I am. I’m living and breathing and experiencing; making friends, navigating social dynamics. Trying to walk the line between fitting in and being boring. There’s a lot of expectation to provide excitement. Everyone wants to throw us a party, to take us to do fun and touristy things, to go out of their way to show us a good time. Which is lovely and considerate. But it’s also out of their ordinary; it shifts the way the women interact with each other. It puts us in some special category—visitors, filmmakers, celebrities, special, different, important—when what I want to capture is exactly the opposite.

There is a lot of trust required for this sort of project to fly. It takes a lot of faith for a person to let perfect strangers into their lives, into their hearts and hopes and dreams and most philosophical thoughts…and then to let them go and hope they will make something beautiful and meaningful from it all. And there’s a lot of pressure on the other end not to disappoint or misrepresent the people who placed that trust in you, who were willing to open up and become friends and partners in such a short time and under such crazy whirlwind conditions.

And that’s why I can’t give up on the project, no matter how difficult or overwhelming it feels. I can’t bear to disappoint those wonderful people, I can’t bear to let their trust go to waste. I want to do my best to honor that trust and to keep on keeping on until I figure it all out.

"Flat Track Around the World" - An Epic Documentary & Derby Adventure

Follow the journey as three female filmmakers from Portland, Oregon travel the world in search of the soul of woman's flat track roller derby.

What is Postcards from Dreamland?

Postcards from Dreamland is a collection of dreams (from Juvie, Cynthia, or anyone else) related to our epic quest.

Episode 2: The dream of Theresa Pridemore

I was boarding a large plane… When I say plane, I want you to actually imagine a starship. Or a cruise ship in the sky. There were multiple tiers of passengers, with rows going 9 seats wide. It was an impressive construction of a future aircraft only currently accessible in dreams.

In my dream, I had my trademark pink hair. (When I had this dream, it had long since washed back out to blonde, a state that always makes me feel a little naked.) I was carting a bag past the ticket checker, following the velvet ropes up to the boarding hallway when a young woman stopped me. “Oh my god!  I saw you in ‘Flat Track Around the World’. I love that movie.”

I was amazed that anyone recognized me, as my appearance in the film (well, at least the dreamtime version of it) was very brief. So far my real life attachment to the film is primarily through my art director title (not to mention my love for all things woman and my dear friend Cynthia Lopez).

It should be noted that, so far there has been no plan for me to have any on-camera time for the movie…Not because I’m not welcome to, it’s just that, by my view, I don’t really have anything to add personally to the narrative. Maybe at some point this will change, if my dream is anything to go on…

The girl asked me for my autograph and I gladly obliged. It felt nice to be recognized. Mostly, I was just happy the film was getting enough recognition that I might be remembered for my small part in it. I was a bit lucid in the dream, and remember noting to myself, “Remember this in the morning. This is an important dream.”

It had a sense of destiny to it. Then again, I’ve always felt this film did. I’m so happy to be a part of it.

Analysis (by Cynthia Lopez):

Flying on starships is always glamorous.  Don’t forget your lipstick or your dream pillow.

"Flat Track Around the World" - An Epic Documentary & Derby Adventure

Follow the journey as three female filmmakers from Portland, Oregon travel the world in search of the soul of woman's flat track roller derby.

What is Postcards from Dreamland?

Postcards from Dreamland is a collection of dreams (from Juvie, Cynthia, or anyone else) related to our epic quest.

Episode 1

Last night I dreamt that Juvie and I were in New York City for some sort of work on our project.  We ate at teeny tiny hobbit-sized restaurants, with mattresses as seats, with really expensive food – y’know, like they do in New York.

At one point, we were on a bus and I spotted Bruce Willis sitting across from us in the back of the bus.  His hair was crazy, he was coming from a movie set.  I totally love him, but I didn’t acknowledge him because I felt he should have peace on the bus.  But he took a liking to Juvie and I.  It turns out he was on his way to pick up his kid from school, so we went with him.  Then we went home with him and met his other kids and became friends with his kids (4 to 5 kids, ranging in age from 6-11) as if we weren’t adults at all, but his kids’ age.  We stayed outside his house to play with them.

Analysis

Bruce Willis is awesome.  Bruce Willis and his dreamtime kids like us.  Therefore, frogs.

"Flat Track Around the World" - An Epic Documentary & Derby Adventure

Follow the journey as three female filmmakers from Portland, Oregon travel the world in search of the soul of woman's flat track roller derby.

Oh, what adventures we had as we made our way through Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Tijuana! What adventures…