Spirit of the Game
2003 · 47m · Canada
Directed by Annie Fraziér Henry
Genres: documentary, sports
Tones: contemplative, tender
A small group of elite Indigenous athletes from British Columbia trains and travels over two years toward Winnipeg's 2002 edition of the North American Indigenous Games, joining thousands of young competitors from Canada and the United States.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Sports doc about Indigenous athletes heading to a games—sounds like the safest possible premise, except Henry refuses the triumph narrative entirely, letting boredom and doubt sit uncomfortably alongside dedication, which is genuinely perverse in the best way.
A formally restrained meditation on preparation and community that trusts the two-year timeframe to do its deepest work; the film locates itself in a lineage of patient documentary craft where the games themselves become almost secondary to what's been built along the way.
Henry's decision to stay with the quiet moments—the bus rides, the hesitations, the face before competition—rather than the athletic spectacle itself is what transforms this from earnest coverage into something that actually breathes.