THE FILM IN DETAILS

POWER is a feature documentary about the U.S. Power Soccer National Team at a monumental moment in their journey as a team, and in the lives of Natalie, Jordan, Drew, Zach, and Riley who represent the team’s heart and soul. After a shocking upset by France at the 2017 World Cup, the scrappy grassroots team picks up the pieces of the national program when an unexpected opportunity appears: The team is backed by the U.S. Soccer Federation and overnight the athletes become paid professionals. The team is suddenly infused with financing and resources. 

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In a sport designed for them, in customized wheelchairs built for them, these five athletes find limitless freedom and a platform to accelerate their fight for equality and recognition. Off the court, they fall in love, face down threats to their health and athletic careers, and confront the hurdles of living in a world designed for the non-disabled. 

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The national team’s reboot starts off with missteps. Asynchronicity plagues the team’s performance. Personalities clash and frustrations soar. With the sudden death of one of the athletes a month before the World Cup, the realities of life come crashing onto the court. Can the team recalibrate under a cloud of grief? 

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Arriving at the World Cup in Sydney, Australia the U.S. team easily defeats England and concedes only one loss to France. They advance to the semi-finals, proving to be a potent force built out of the ashes of 2017. Will the U.S. team find redemption and clench the world title? 

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POWER is at various times entertaining, thought-provoking and surprising. It is the unflinching honest portrait of an invisible class of elite athletes that fight for gold in a sport that is largely invisible, in a world that often doesn’t see them.

At its core, POWER is an observational documentary defined by closeness and intimacy. The narrative is driven by hand-held cinéma vérité that reveals the multi-dimensionality of our characters on and off the court. 

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The visual language is naturalistic in style, minimal in influence, and present tense. Our approach was simple: work in small teams (oftentimes a single operator) and never allow production to interfere with the storytelling. We chose to film all hand-held for its immersive quality placing the viewer in the moment, experiencing the story as it unfolds. At any given moment, we had 5-10 athletes and coaches mic’d to capture organic conversations. The result is a presence in the filmmaking that is aural, visceral, raw, honest, and engaging. It’s hard to look away. 

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We spent countless hours embedded with the team, developing deep relationships with the participants. This trust empowered the participants to be confident, authentic, and willingly vulnerable. They offered us unparalleled access to film the mundane and personal moments, and all the normally unseen “closed-door sports moments.”

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The film succeeds in creating two distinct, yet overlapping worlds where the visibility of a character’s disability ebbs and flows throughout the narrative. While an athlete’s disability may become more apparent in the privacy of their home, their disability completely disappears in the movement of sport. The viewer at times completely forgets they are watching a disability story, and become wholly invested in the athletes’ success.