Kick Like a Girl

About the Project

Kick Like A Girl is a feature documentary about the story of what happens when "The Mighty Cheetahs," an undefeated all-girls soccer team, competes in the boys division. With humor and candor this documentary gets at the heart of the boy-girl issues and explores what "Kick Like A Girl" really means on and off the playing field. Refreshing and triumphant, Kick Like A Girl reminds us all of the lessons learned in competitive athletics and how sports has been one of the most effective instruments of social change in our lifetime.

The film brings you into the heat of a tough battle as the Mighty Cheetahs play against a boy's team. The girls and the boys tackle the soccer ball in nose-to-nose plays. The boys score. The girls score. The girls get a break away and score again. We cut to the girls and hear how 'special' they feel being able to be in the boys division. They talk about the disrespectful way in which "kick like a girl", and "throw like a girl" is used as an insult. The hope is that "one day 'kick like a girl' will be a seen as a compliment".

Kick Like A Girl is a story that allows a wide audience to reconsider how we think about sex roles and encouraging girls at any age to compete athletically. The key message, that girls and boys should have limitless possibilities on and off the playing field, is one that with outreach and audience engagement will continue to promote human rights.

The Fledgling Fund Impact

The Fledgling Fund is pleased to have provided seed funding for Kick Like a Girl’s audience engagement initiative. This early funding allowed the filmmakers to launch an interactive and informative website and blog, to identify and build relationships with their key audiences and to pilot Kick Like a Girl programs with key audiences including school administrators, teaching staffs, and students; youth soccer teams (coaches, players, and parents); and those serving children/families with diabetes.  With Fledgling’s support as well as advice from Working Films, the filmmakers were able to develop an engagement plan that they hope will continue “beyond the screening room”.