ESPN Films’ 30 for 30 Shorts series will debut a new documentary Mack Wrestles on Sunday, September 22. The film’s directors invite the audience to go behind the scenes as they follow talented athlete, Mack Beggs and the struggles he faces from outside forces as a transgender athlete.
What’s happening:
- ESPN Films will debut a new documentary from its 30 for 30 Shorts series, Mack Wrestles, on Sunday, September 22, at 2 pm ET on ESPN and 4:30 pm ET on ABC.
- The 25-minute film premiered at SXSW Film Festival earlier this year and has screened at numerous film festivals including Tribeca, Dallas, Inside Out, AFI Docs and Frameline.
- Mack Wrestles, co-directed by Taylor Hess and Erin Sanger, takes the audience behind the scenes as Mack Beggs, a gifted athlete from Euless, Texas, struggles against the outside forces that stigmatize transgender athletes.
- Wrestling is brutal enough. There are the demands for strength and speed and stamina, the hours bathed in sweat, the knowledge that your opponent wants to wipe the mat with you. Those were the very reasons, though, that Beggs loved the sport—it gave him a sense of purpose and a sense of self.
- Despite all the turmoil, this poignant film makes one thing perfectly clear: If life were a wrestling match, the referee would be raising Mack’s arm at the end.
What they’re saying:
- Katie Barnes, ESPN writer/reporter and executive producer of Mack Wrestles: “Mack’s story touches at the heart of the debate around sports and who gets to play them. Often that debate forgets the humanity of these young people who want to play sports. It’s hard to look away from Mack’s humanity.”
About the filmmakers:
Erin Sanger:
- Sanger is a writer and director whose work spans both documentary and narrative films.
- Her work has screened at over fifty film festivals internationally including SXSW and Tribeca Film Festivals.
- She is a Wasserman Award Winner, Student Academy Award nominee, Webby Award Honoree, and her directorial work has been featured on National Geographic, The Atlantic, PBS, Topic, and Hulu.
- She is currently completing her first feature, which received NYU’s Richard Vague Production Fund grant.
Taylor Hess:
- Hess is a filmmaker, journalist, and contributing editor for Filmmaker Magazine.
- She recently associate produced a pilot for CNN Films and has worked as a researcher for Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions on Enhanced, an ESPN documentary series that debuted at the 2018 Tribeca International Film Festival. She’s worked for the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) and for Scott Rudin Productions.