Doglegs (2015)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Heath Cozens
	Actors:
	Country: J
	Genre: Documentary, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 26.05.2016, Naxoshalle, Japanese with English subtitles, NCF2016
Synopsis: Despite his suffering from cerebral palsy, Shintaro has been a wrestler for twenty years. Now he wants to end his career with one final match against his mentor Kitajima.
Review: Kitajima is working in a center for disabled. When several of them asked to organise a wrestling training, they all started to see it as a therapy. Over the years they got a kind of popularity. Very underground. And this is where Heath Cozens learnt about them. During Q&A he explained that the public was 3 to 300 viewers and mostly familiars. To watch this sport with very unfair fights may seem dirty and insane, but it is supposed to make the disability disappear. From my experience, it is not that obvious. On one hand Shintaro and other disabled need to experience there physical limits and want to be treated like able-bodied and defend this sport very emotionally. On the other hand Kitajima and other able-bodied do not explain much of the therapy. The director does not ask much neither and barely question this. By reading the English subtitles, it sounds like self destruction or like anti-discrimination depending on the moment. Also during the Q&A, the director did not want to question it or to give his view on that sport or on Kitajima. Quite strange for somebody who has been following the group for months. At least as a viewer, we can think about letting disabled and able-bodied competing in sport.
Rating: 4 /10