Inspiring docu about track star sisters has mature themes.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 10+?
Any Positive Content?
Sex, Romance & Nudity
some
Girls take a sex education class and learn where their vaginas are, how to insert a tampon, and how many "holes" they have. Their coaches talk about helping the girls avoid pregnancy until they are ready for it, a condition that can sideline teens from their goals. The coach tells the girls that after puberty, boys and men will look at them "differently" and do things "that make you uncomfortable and when they do, you come to me." Rainn reports to friends that a boy kissed her.
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The girls' older brother was killed in a shooting some years back. One sister throws a crayon at a teacher's knee and is disciplined at school and suspended from the team. The coach advises that everyone has the right to get angry, but there's never a reason to assault anyone.
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It takes a village to raise a child. These sisters learned from loving supporters to work hard, focus, and better themselves through education.
Positive Role Models
a lot
The three Shepherd sisters are close, warm, and affectionate cheerleaders for each other. They have taken hardships -- they lived in homeless shelters -- and used them to become stronger and more driven toward success. Their main coach, Jean Bell, inspires them and holds them to the highest standards of excellence and behavior.
Diverse Representations
a lot
Tai, Rainn, and Brooke Shepherd are all Black, as is their mother Tonia Handy and their powerful coaches, Jean Bell and Karel Lancaster-Williamson. Their track club was created to get more Black girls involved in sports, and win them college scholarships, making education the focus. The coach talks about the way young Black men are seen as threatening by White people, which can be especially dangerous for the youths in encounters with police officers. The coach tells the girls that going to college doesn't offer young Black men protection in tense situations. "When a cop stops you, do they ask about college?" The coach laments that few Black students are admitted to specialized high schools. A coach speaks to Black girls about the ways they have to change their behaviors when they enter a largely White environment. One girl says she doesn't want to use certain slang that won't be understood. Another says she doesn't want to be seen as "ghetto" or "hood." The coach suggests that hardships that Black kids face can leave them few alternatives but to live lives as "thugs" and that's why kids must get educations so they can lift themselves out of poverty.
Parents need to know Sisters on Track is a 2021 documentary about three sisters, fresh from a homeless shelter, working hard at school and for their track team in order to get college scholarships that will turn their lives around. Language includes "hell." Girls take a sex education class and learn where their vaginas are, how to insert a tampon, and how many "holes" they have. The coaches emphasize that one of the goals of their track club for girls is to keep the girls off the streets and away from drugs. The movie is inspirational in its demonstration of how good parenting and coaching can help girls make good decisions. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails.
My 7 & 9 year old really enjoyed the movie, lots of questions about life’s ups and downs. Great insight as to how hard you need to work to achieve your dreams. Good movie to watch with your kids.
What's the Story?
In Brooklyn, NY, SISTERS ON TRACK, that is, Rainn, Brooke, and Tai Shepherd, all run track on a local team created to keep young girls off the streets and prepare them to earn sports scholarships to college. The girls' drive and hard work won them recognition at the Junior Olympics and featured them as "Kids of the Year" on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine. All of this -- good grades too -- was achieved while they lived with their mom, Tonia Handy, in a homeless shelter. The mom struggles to find a job that pays better than minimum wage so she can support her girls. During an appearance on the TV show The View,Whoopi Goldberg informed them that actor-writer-director Tyler Perry was paying their rent for a year on a lovingly-furnished apartment until Handy could get back on her feet. The mom, who has battled many setbacks, has the support of coach Jean Bell and her sister and fellow coach Karel Lancaster-Williams. The girls themselves demonstrate so many stellar qualities -- intelligence, gratitude, decency -- even as they make mistakes and strive to correct them. This can serve as an inspiration to every parent, coach, and child struggling to survive in a tough world.
This incredible story is sure to inspire both kids and parents. Sisters on Track is a moving documentary that offers perspectives not only from a struggling mom who lost her home and still raised three impressive daughters, but also from the coach that treats the girls like her own, and from the point of view of the three sisters themselves. As the young girls enter puberty, they speak with wisdom beyond their years, demonstrating that they've absorbed the good advice they've been lucky enough to receive, gifts that Coach Jean and their mom have given them.
The middle of the film veers slightly off-course as it looks at the girls navigating the social difficulties of middle-school life, but it rights itself when the focus returns to the girls' remarkable discipline, hard work, and honest self-assessments, all of which help them achieve the grades they need to earn scholarships to a private high school and head toward hoped-for college scholarships. If only every child could turn to the wise guides these girls have, the world would be a better place.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how close the three sisters are as they support each other and hug each other in good times and bad. Who supports you, and who do you support?
Does the progress of these girls inspire you to overcome your own obstacles? How so? How do the girls demonstrate the character strength of perseverance?
Coach Jean is both loving and strict. Do you think she's effective? Why or why not?
MPAA explanation:
for thematic elements, brief sex-ed discussion, and some language
Last updated:
February 17, 2023
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