A maddening, heartbreaking, ultimately satisfying documentary about the fight to depose Rene Portland, the celebrated women's basketball coach at Penn State who wielded her "no lesbians" rule with brutal force. For almost 30 years Portland threatened students, threw them off the team, made insinuations about other universities' programs, all with impunity — until a courageous former student took her to court with the help of the National Center for Lesbian Rights (and Tampa attorney Karen Doering). Directors Dee Mosbacher and Fawn Yacker build a strong case against the insular status of college athletic programs, which enables coaches like Portland to foster homophobia even when it goes against university policy. But what you'll remember most from their film are the former Penn Staters who suffered under Portland's treatment and are still hurting decades later. And there's one great irony: the vaunted coach never won a national title. As one of her former graduate assistants remarks, "We used to joke and say, 'Does she really think she's going to win a national title without a lesbian on her team?'" Sun. Oct. 11, 3 p.m., Tampa Theatre. Followed by a panel discussion on homophobia in sports moderated by Steve Kmetko. —David Warner
More reviews at the Tampa International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival page.
This article appears in Oct 8-14, 2009.