As the Summer Olympics in Paris approach, there will be no shortage of inspiring stories of athletes overcoming obstacles. But 18 days after the Olympic torch is extinguished in Paris, the Summer Paralympics will begin, and that’s where a whole other tier of inspiring stories lay.
A new documentary, “Nina Is an Athlete” chronicles the journey to the previous Paralympics in Tokyo by wheelchair-bound Israeli Badminton player, Nina Gorodetzky. The documentary is directed by Israeli documentarian Ravit Markus, who began working on “Nina Is an Athlete” at the end of 2018. It begins with Nina as a 30something married mother of a son. With her big 4-0 approaching, the documentary follows Nina in her quest to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic games. On top of that, she and her husband Dor are contemplating having a second child. It feels like a now-or-never moment, and that tension emanates in every scene.
The 2020 Summer Paralympics would also be the first time Badminton was a paralympic event, and Nina is excited to represent Israel, her homeland since she was eleven. She and her family made aliyah from her birth country of Georgia when the Soviet Union fell.
And then at age 17, Nina was severely injured in a traffic collision, suffering a spinal cord injury, paralyzing her from the waist down. It didn’t stop her from becoming a badminton champion in Israel and starting a family.
Director Markus, a graduate of the Film and TV Department of Tel Aviv University, brings a deeply personal connection to this project: Nina is the sister-in-law of Markus’ sister-in-law.
Markus has made several documentaries in the past. Her previous documentary, “American Pot Story: Oaksterdam,” won several awards in 2023, including the Audience Award at the Slamdance Film Festival. Markus returned to Slamdance in Park City, Utah this year to showcase “Nina Is an Athlete.”
Unlike those documentaries, however, Markus was right along with her subject as the story unfolded.
“You really are living life with the participants in the film,” Markus said. “You are really going through things with them when they’re sad, you are sad with them. When they’re happy, you’re happy with them. And I captured a lot of it on camera in real time and it was an amazing process to be part of.”
In the midst of filming “Nina Is an Athlete,” the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic delayed the Paralympic games indefinitely.
“When the Olympics got delayed, at first it was like, ‘What do we do now? We don’t have an end for our film,’” Markus said. “But then it turned out to be an interesting plot point.”
Throughout the documentary, there are countdowns to the Paralympics: 18 months, six months. Then during the precarious summer of 2020, the countdown marquee just says, “Unknown Time to Paralympics.” Later in the documentary, the marquee says “February 2021: Six Months To Paralympics (Again).”
The documentary chronicles the daily challenges of being wheelchair bound, even with Nina’s immense physical strength. Whether it’s getting around her home, taking a nearly 12-hour flight from Tel Aviv to Tokyo, or dealing with bedsore issues, the 72-minute documentary will be eye-opening to many people who don’t understand these challenges firsthand.
Whether it’s getting around her home, taking a nearly 12-hour flight from Tel Aviv to Tokyo, or dealing with bedsore issues, the 72-minute documentary will be eye-opening to many people who don’t understand these challenges firsthand.
“My consulting producer, Mia Schaikewitz, who also has a spinal cord injury, advocated that I film this process,” Markus said. “It’s an important educational moment.” This scene is particularly notable because it shows Nina being treated by an Arab-Israeli nurse, Mustafa Yassin. While this type of inter-ethnic coexistence is part of everyday life in Israel, it may be an illuminating moment for audiences around the world.
“That nurse is actually an Arab-Israeli, it’s not said [in the documentary], it’s not important, he’s just the nurse,” Markus said. “But some people might see his name in the credits or recognize his slight accent.”
“It takes so much stamina,” Markus said. “There were many moments when I thought I just don’t have a film.” Along the way, Markus received support from her friends and colleagues in the documentary filmmaking community, including Jim Lebrecht, the Oscar-nominated co-director of “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution.”
“[Lebrecht] invited me to be part of his organization for doc filmmakers with disabilities and their allies,” Markus said. “And he invited me as an ally. The whole organization’s belief in the film gave me this push that I can’t disappoint everyone. I have to keep going. If they believe that this film is of value, then I should just keep going.”
The LA Jewish Film Festival showcased one of Markus’ previous films, “Yiddish Theater: A Love Story” (co-written with her husband, director Dan Katzir) in 2005.
“I love the LA Jewish Film Festival, I’m so happy to be back there,” Markus said.
We won’t spoil the ending of “Nina Is an Athlete,” but we will say this: as Nina prepares for the Paris 2024 Paralympics, Markus is contemplating a potential sequel to “Nina Is an Athlete.”
“[Nina is] unbelievable — because of the war in Israel, her husband was drafted and she had to stay home with the kids, so she missed months of valuable training,” Markus said. “But even so, she qualified for Paris 2024.”
After you watch the “Nina Is An Athlete,” be on the look out for how to watch Nina Gorodetzky compete in Badminton at the Adidas Arena (formerly the Porte de La Chapelle Arena) in Paris — The Journal will be covering her competitions.
To stay in the loop on where to see “Nina Is an Athlete,” follow director Ravit Markus on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ravitmarkus/
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