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| "DAWN" Newsletter of The
DAWN CENTER |
| The 2003 Women's Film Festival Presents "Gaea Girls" and a Photo Exhibition of "Fighting Women"
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The Women's Film Festival is held to promote and develop women's participation in the film industry and a woman's perspective in film culture. The festival highlights films directed by women or films that focus on women's lifestyles. In 2003, The Women's Film Festival presented, "Gaea Girls," a documentary film that uses the world of Japanese women's professional wrestling to exemplify the support that women have for each other. The documentary was directed by Ms. Jano Willams and Ms. Kim Longinotto from the U.K.
The film centers on Ms. Chigusa Nagayo, a charismatic professional wrestler, and Ms. Ayaka Takeuchi, who idolized Ms. Nagayo and becomes her student. The documentary follows the extreme training that Ms. Takeuchi endures under Ms. Nagayo's tutelage that leads up to her debut match as a professional wrestler. The film shows Ms. Nagayo's passion for "instructing her students," the support that other wrestlers give to Ms. Takeuchi, and the way young wrestlers devote their youthfulness to professional wrestling. Here are some things that people said after seeing the film; "I was not interested in professional wrestling at all until today, but I was moved so much by the film that I cried," "I could feel both their mental and physical strength," "Seeing professional women wrestlers that never give up and push themselves to their limits was very appealing."
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"Fighting Women"
Ms. Chigusa Nagayo helped to increase the popularity of professional women's wrestling in early 1980's. At that time, the retirement age for professional women wrestlers was 25. She retired for a time and began to follow a career as an entertainer and actress. Compared with other professional sports, professional wrestling was held in low esteem. As for women wrestlers, labor conditions were very bad. In this environment, Ms. Nagayo came back to the ring at the age of 28, in an inspired attempt to get professional women's wrestling recognized as a legitimate career and occupation. She focused on using her wrestling techniques in matches rather than trying to put on a show for men. In 1994, she founded Gaea Japan, a professional women's wrestling organization.
At matches, wrestlers appear in different costumes such as wearing a long sparkling gown and with a drawn wooden sword, dressed as a prince, comedian's style, and wearing a kimono. Woman wrestlers perform a sort of story line where one takes the role of villainess, called "Heel," and the other the role of a good-natured hero, called "Baby-face." The typical idea of beauty, which many young women see as beauty treatments and diets, doesn't apply to women wrestlers, however; they continue to attract people while in the ring.
Why do they fight? Why do they want to be strong? They have a powerful will to train and fight in order to create a place to move freely. They remove their feminine qualities and express themselves in the ring where all can see, keeping the audience captivated with their well trained bodies and techniques. A lot of young girls admire professional women wrestlers and many of them will become wrestling students in the hope of being like Ms. Chigusa Nagayo. Most professional women wrestlers are between the ages of 20 and 30 and are planning to work after they retire, for instance becoming a licensed care worker.
The photo exhibition, "Fighting Women" by photographer Yasuhiko Okuno was held for one month in the Dawn Center as a compliment to the Women's Film Festival. The exhibit was in the Dawn Center's open well style lobby that reaches up to the third floor and included large photos of exciting matches and life-size pictures of seventeen professional women wrestlers from newcomers in their teens to active wrestlers in their 40's. The exhibit also showed the daily life of the wrestlers from assembling their own rings to cultivating organic vegetables and cooking their own meals.
Ayumi Nishina, Programming Group Division of the Dawn Center
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Copyright (C) 2007 DawnCenter. All Rights Reserved.
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