Helen: Believe

 

Storytelling

Helen: Believe (2023) is a wrestling documentary about the rise, fall, and resurgence of World Champion and Olympian Helen Maroulis. She is the first woman from the USA to win gold in wrestling. This film was produced by Chris Pratt as he worked hand in hand with Helen Maroulis herself. The film is sectioned into 6 parts, which follow her journey from being the only girl wrestling on youth teams back in 2004, to her Olympic gold in Rio in 2016. Then how her career-ending injury gave her very real self-doubt, PTSD, and depression. It shows the heartbreaks and struggles that a woman athlete competing in a male-dominated sport as she climbs back out of rock bottom to resurge as a two-time Olympic medalist. It's insane how fast a person can go from the top of the world to the lowest point in their life in the span of a few months.

Cinematography

    This film uses both clips and footage from real matches and interviews, as well as some scenes that were shot during the production of the film (as most documentaries do). What I thought was special about this documentary is that it dives deep into the mental health aspect of high-level athletics in a way that no other documentary has. Helen Maroulis was not afraid to talk about her struggles and having to get help and some of the scenes depict just how bad it got. One scene that really got to me is when she was working out to try to recover from her injury and she just started breaking down completely defeated. It shows just how much pressure athletes put on themselves to perform at 110% all the time. Throughout the film they constantly repeat the fact that no other kind of athlete could even attempt to come back from rock bottom, only a wrestler has the mindset to never quit. 

Cultural Relevance

    This film is extremely relevant to the women's athletics community. Never before has such a raw and emotional documentary been released. Myself and my other teammates felt like this film portrayed exactly how it feels to compete in the sport of wrestling and it was reassuring to know that even the best in the world go through rough experiences. With women's wrestling being the number one fasted growing sport in the U.S., I feel like this film was needed to accelerate that growth and show girls all around the country that they too can compete in a male-dominated sport. I hope that other women are just as inspired by this film as I was.