Documentary on Shiprock girls title team a 14-year odyssey
By Paul Ingles

SPECIAL TO THE ALBUQUERQUE TRIBUNE - December 15, 2002

WINDOW ROCK, ARIZ. - Window Rock is a long way from Los Angeles or New York. But earlier this year, it was abuzz with all the excitement of a Hollywood premiere.

The crowd was building in the theater lobby at the Navajo Nation Museum. Television reporters were interviewing the film's actors as they arrived. The director was pacing nervously.

The documentary "Rocks With Wings," which airs Wednesday on PBS, was being screened for the first time to the people whose story it tells: the players, coaches and fans of the Shiprock High School girls' basketball team of 1988, otherwise known as the New Mexico Class Triple-A state champion Lady Chieftains.

Almost all the original team's players and their families came to the special screening in April to see the work of Rick Derby, a white filmmaker from New York who spent 14 years completing the project. "I haven't been able to sleep," Derby said at the premiere. "They entrusted me with their story, and now I've managed to get it told. But I hope I told it well."

The themes of trust, and the threat of violated trust, have been central to American Indians throughout history. And they run strongly through the original story of this all-Navajo girls basketball team's rise to prominence and in Derby's own odyssey of making the film.

The Navajos had always called Shiprock's distinctive rock formation the "rock with wings," which Derby used for the title. The film establishes early on the sense of limited possibilities that pervaded this New Mexico reservation town in the early 1980s.Read more ›

I bought this DVD after seeing what I could online for free. This is interesting to me as a "student" of the Navajo history and culture in New Mexico. After I am done with the DVD I hope to donate it to our local library for a wider audience; it's a bit of history that should be more widely understood.

This is the story of defeat and triumph, of shame and pride, of weakness and strength. This is not just a basketball story. This is not just a Native American story. This is a human story. This is a story the clash of cultures and personalities, a hard-driving black coach and a team of downtrodden Navajo girls in need of a leader. You do not need to be interested in basketball, Indians or the difficulties of minorities in America to become immersed in this story.

I did not expect the depth and breadth of the story. It was through my own interest in the lives of modern American Indians that I found Rocks With Wings, and I was pleasantly surprised with the inclusion of so much insight into Navajo beliefs, customs and mindset. I expected the movie to be interesting. I did not expect it to be fascinating. Based on the story, I expected it to be inspiring. I did not expect it to be exciting.

I was already familiar with Anglo attempts to make Indians ashamed of their heritage, but I was not aware just how deep this feeling ran among some Indians. It was great to see not only the team uplifted by their success, but the whole community as well. Smiles and pride where there had been little before.

Rocks With Wings is amazing. Not just the story itself, but the way it is told. It is not narrated, the people are simply allowed to tell their stories, and with careful editing, the stories are interwoven with background information and highlights of two exciting basketball games which bring the story to a climax.

Normally I try to bargain hunt my DVDs, so I was at first a bit put off by the price of this one, but this gem is a bargain after all.

Great product.

DVD was promptly provided for my use. Accessibility to product was simple. Product itself was excellent and informative. I am a pleased consumer.

I recently discovered this documentary and its story and fell in love with it. I really can't pinpoint exactly what it is, but, obviously, it's about the human spirit and its triumph over adversity. Though it's about a black coach and an Indian girls basketball team, as a Latino, I relate to it strongly as a person of color.

Before watching the documentary, I looked for all the clips I could find online and researched the coach. I found out he had passed away and this saddened me. He came across as such an inspiring and calm presence on his interviews. He seemed to be such an inspirational and good person that I wanted to know more about him and what he was doing today.

I finally watched the documentary. After watching, I'd love to know what the girls are up to in the present day, too. They were a spunky bunch and you couldn't help but root for them.

Let me also say, I'm not really a sports fan. It's not about that. Though the girls were really passionate about basketball, it was a means to many ends in the coach's eyes. This is a human story that anyone should be able to relate to, at the least understand, and, definitely, be moved by. Basketball fans will be able to appreciate it on another level, though.

The director did such a great job. Like I said before, I can't explain it. It's not only that this documentary touched my heart, it's that it has stayed with me in a way that other documentaries do not. Because it resonated with me so deeply, I'd like to recommend it to everyone.