Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, August 26: AMERICAN CHEERLEADER
David Barba and James Pellerito’s look at the high-spirited world of competitive high school cheerleading debuts exclusively on VOD platforms today via FilmBuff. It will also screen at NYC’s All-American High School Film Fest in October.
In this fun real life version of BRING IT ON, two teams fight to make it to the National High School Cheerleading Championship – one to defend their title, the other in the hopes of finally claiming it for themselves. Barba and Pellerito’s buoyant immersion into the world of aerials, pyramids, flyers, and catchers focuses on New Jersey coach Kim Gaskin’s Burlington Township High School defending champions and Kentucky coach Sheryl Shoemaker’s Southwestern High School squad, who placed fourth the previous year. As the clock counts down to the competition – and the coveted white jackets that go to the winning team – the film balances the girls’ rigorous training with a history of the development of the activity into a legitimate sport, taking time out to profile several of the players as they cope with sickness, injury, and family tragedy.
what (not) to doc 