Thoughts on Training Rules

Unfortunately not ours as we have not yet been able to see the recently premiered documentary about former Penn State b-ball coach Rene Portland. (We hear it will be available for distribution this fall.)

But Training Rules debuted this past weekend at the Philadelphia Film Festival. Pat Griffin of It Takes a Team! was there and has posted her thoughts on the film and her experience at the premiere. (And yes, we were extremely jealous!) Griffin was in the film along with Jennifer Harris's lawyers, Harris herself (all of whom were bound by confidentiality agreements that accompanied the settlement.) But other former players and an assistant coach were not and their stories were quite poignant according to Griffin and judging by the strong reactions of the audience that she recounts.

Not quite so enthusiastic was a critic from the Philadelphia Inquirer who said that the movie was hampered by the gag rule on the parties and, of course, the lack of Portland's voice (the filmmaker used recruiting and game footage of her). He was also disappointed that the film did not put forth more solid reasons behind Portland's homophobia. He did think the film made an excellent point about the negative effects of homophobia in women's sports but that the point had been effectively made in the first ten minutes. In the end, his 2 out of 4 star review stated that it was more like a Bryant Gumbel Real Sports segment and not worthy of a full-length documentary.

And this article is also about the premiere and includes comments from some of the people in the film as well as the producers and filmmaker.