The racial reckoning that enveloped the country in Black Lives Matter protests during the summer of 2020 set the stage for the WNBA to join the fight against social injustice.
Directed by Dawn Porter, Prime Video’s new documentary Power of the Dream gives viewers an intimate look inside the 2020 WNBA season. Although isolated in a bubble – affectionately known as the Wubble by fans — at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, Power of the Dream gives an exclusive look into how the W’s 144 players navigated the coronavirus pandemic while preparing to start the season, advocated for women who died after encounters with police, and directly affected the 2020 elections. To say the story was compelling would be an understatement.
“Once they started describing what it was, I was like, ‘Of course, why wouldn’t I want to talk about how the WNBA helped save democracy.’ So that’s how it started,” Porter, who directed award-winning documentaries on civil rights activist John Lewis and slain presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, told Andscape.
Following a year of production, archival footage, and film from retired U.S. star soccer forward Megan Rapinoe‘s cellphone, the documentary shows viewers the initial meeting with future U.S. senator Raphael Warnock, the printing of Vote Warnock T-shirts, and the intense collective meetings about whether to postpone games following the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August 2020.
Recently, Andscape caught up with Porter to discuss Power of the Dream, the influence of the WNBA and the impact of the film.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Why was it so important to include a deep dive into the origins of the WNBA and its history of advocacy in this documentary?
That is a really important question that gets to the heart of this film. As we bring new fans to women’s basketball, you want to make sure people have some understanding of the struggle that has helped to get the women’s game to where it is today in terms of respect, but also understand how they got to this place was through advocacy. Advocacy for themselves and for their sport for respect. They all like to say it’s in our DNA to fight for things. They don’t have the luxury of people just assuming that they’re fantastic and top-tier athletes. They have to demand respect. As a group, they have always had this history of working collectively because they had to work collectively to increase their pay [and] get travel support.
When there were all these social justice crises happening in the United States, they were not going to be quiet. They said, ‘We fought hard for this platform, but who we are as individuals, is people who care about people who look like us.’ And they were not going to sit by while people were being murdered in the streets.
For faithful WNBA fans that were following the action from the Wubble live, what are some exclusive behind-the-scenes footage that they should expect to see in Power of the Dream?
[Megan Rapinoe’s] cellphone footage is some of the footage that we’ve got to use in the film to show what the conditions were like, what their protests meetings were like, and how they navigated. Not everybody feels the same way. Not everybody was positive that they should be collective but they worked through it to come to a group consensus. So you see all that in the movie. How they got to the idea of wearing those T-shirts and then you see them printing them up. You see that meeting with Raphael Warnock and you see their advocacy started way before the lockdown. You see the history of what they had been doing all along, and you see that their advocacy during the pandemic was an extension of what they have continuously been doing.
Given the divisive media controversy that has plagued the league so much this season, how do you think this film offers more insight into the players in the league?
[Sue Bird] makes the point that the league is so much more about supporting each other, but they’re competitors. They play a physical game and I think people who have not watched them play might have been surprised. I don’t know what they expected. Basketball is a physical sport and they’re playing in a physical game. They’re competitors. But that doesn’t speak to hostility or anger. People are imposing that narrative on folks. I think when you see what the [WNBA] has done collectively and consistently over so many years, that to me, is actually who they are. So I think the film helps. We’ve been making this for over a year. So this way precedes all of this controversy, it wasn’t like we were looking to tell a certain narrative. We just told the narrative that was already there.
What did you learn about these WNBA players throughout the filming process?
I was so moved, inspired, and proud of these women. They’re smart, strategic, persistent, fearless, and honest. It would start to get really heavy for them, and there’s one point where Layshia Clarendon, who was on the Dream at the time, said, ‘I gotta step back for a moment — it’s too much.’ Then Sue Bird stepped up. You see them saying this is what I need and then you see the people coming in and helping.
So I definitely think you see a story of collective action that is so mature, mature beyond the years beyond their years. All of that, asking, seeking, petitioning, and pushing. They’ve poured all that energy and skill into working to get a Democratic senator elected, who then, by the way, flipped the Senate, secured control for Democrats, and was able to vote for [Supreme Court Justice] Ketanji Brown Jackson.
What do you hope both new and seasoned fans take away from this documentary?
I hope that they see another dimension of the league. But I also hope that they get, we have some really fun sequences where you’re just seeing some great basketball. So we don’t lose the basketball for the activism. The basketball is there. So I think I hope people have an even deeper respect for the W coming out of this. They might have come for the game, but I think they’ll leave for the women. So I’m very excited for people to see just even a little bit more about who some of these other players are. [People] are starting to talk about ‘Say Her Name,’ and I think they’re gonna be saying some more names.