Director: Bess Kargman
Starring: Aran Bell, Rebecca Houseknecht, Joan Sebastian Zamora, Miko Fogarty, Jules Fogarty, Michaela Deprince, Gaya Bommer Yemini
Extras: Full performances, Trailers
Rating: PG
Running Time: 90 minutes
FIRST POSITION follows six young dancers as they prepare for the Youth America Grand Prix in New York City.
It may be easy to dismiss the documentary from the get go (because let’s face it, the average film goer is not really the audience for the ballet) but Bess Kargman has chosen an unconventionally interesting subject for her feature debut. There are a mixture of subjects; from an 11-year-old child prodigy that could give Billy Elliot a run for his money, to a teenage girl who was adopted from war-torn Sierra Leone by an elderly Jewish couple. While ballet might not be everybody’s cup of tea, everyone can relate to the subject of chasing your dreams, and FIRST POSITION does that with every bone-crunching stretch and pirouette.
The stories are interesting, each one of them fighting for a place either in competition or earning a job or scholarships with prestigious ballet companies. We watch as they go through their problems: fighting through injury, dealing with the fact that they are thousands of miles away from home and essentially trying to make a career out of a dream that does not provide much job wise.
But while their stories are interesting, and you learn a lot about a world that is hardly seen in film, the griping moment seems to be the fact that they are all bloody brilliant. The lack of the underdog seems to be what lets the film down. You think there might be a character that could fit this in Jules, not one to take ballet seriously, who is constantly living in the shadow of his sister Miko. But just when you think you might have the film’s true underdog, he suddenly decides that he does not want to do ballet anymore because he lacks “passion”. Damn it Jules, it was all riding on you to steal the show, but you chose smarts instead! Other than this little moment, everyone involved is in the big leagues and you just know that they are going to get places in the ballet schools and win the competitions.
There is only so much a greatly shot documentary can do, and with its happy endings and cute, bubbly characters, it pushes towards GLEE rather than HOOP DREAMS. Still a good watch nonetheless, but if you are not a fan of the sunshine and rainbows type of ending then this might make you want to punch the nearest wall.
EXTRAS: Emphasis on the “punch the nearest wall” comment when you see just how talented these little bastards are in the “Full Performances” section.
FIRST POSITION IS OUT ON DVD VIA ARTIFICIAL EYE NOW
