It’s a touching mother-daughter story about hockey, aging, and womanhood.
OVERTIME is a brand new documentary created by B.C. writer and director Jenny Lee-Gilmore focusing on Kelley Lee Gilmore, a 60-year-old Ph.D. doctor, university professor, and hockey player, who is also Jenny’s mother.
Now Toronto spoke with the mother-daughter duo ahead of OVERTIME’s television premier to learn more about this touching new film.
The documentary follows Kelley’s love of hockey ahead of the Canada 55+ Games in Kamloops, both documenting her story and exploring the intersections of being a Chinese-Canadian woman in hockey.
“When I pitched this documentary to TELUS originals, I had the goal of being objective and being a fly on the wall. So, my voice and my presence as the filmmaker and the daughter of the subject was not part of the storyline,” Jenny explained.
But that soon changed once she connected with the TELUS team, who encouraged her to be a presence in the film, telling her mother’s story from her perspective.
“I’m so happy they ended up suggesting that because what’s really special about the film is it is a hockey film, but it’s also a mother-daughter film.”
Kelley’s story is an inspiring one, in which she has overcome both race, age and gender-based barriers as a Chinese-Canadian woman in the male-dominated world of hockey.
“There are so many layers. It’s about older women and how we disappear from society, and also that cultural element,” Kelley explained.
“People see older women in a different light,” Kelley said, adding that it’s rare to see women of a “certain age” compete in sports.
She explained that a few years ago she found herself considering hanging up her skates, thinking that perhaps it had been her last year playing hockey. But now?
“I don’t know how long I’ll play, but I don’t think of it that way anymore. I just look forward to continuing to play and I hope other women who play hockey can see that, you know, they don’t have to stop in their 30s, or their 40s, 50s [or] 60s,” Kelley shared, adding that she has a 71-year-old teammate.
“She’s a wonderful player. She hops the boards, she’s faster than me.”
BREAKING DOWN CULTURAL STEREOTYPES
In addition to highlighting the experiences and accomplishments of grown women in sports, the film also challenges racial stereotypes.
“The fact that this is [about] an Asian woman, I think it’s even more poignant. Because in my generation, growing up, there was this dominant image of the idealized Asian woman as being small, passive, quiet, you know, non-aggressive.”
“All the things I’m actually not, and never was,” Kelley laughed.
She said that while there is nothing wrong with being quiet or passive, these stereotypes place unfair restrictions on Asian women.
“When you don’t conform to these things, [if] you’re more competitive, maybe you’re a little louder, then women are sometimes labelled in a certain way, [as] a dragon lady or tiger mom.”
The hockey player and mother of two shared that she hopes to give Asian women representation in a way that many people have never seen before.
“I really hope the film gives audiences a glimpse of Asian women doing something they haven’t seen before. And [lets] Asian women see themselves, giving them permission to be themselves,” she continued.
Jenny shared that her favourite part of working on OVERTIME has been watching audiences connect with the story.
“[My favourite part] is probably the amount of people who have seen themselves in my mom’s story and have come forward and shared about their relationship with their daughter, or their mom. Or they [tell me about] a passion that they never got to pursue, or pursued later in life,.”
The new film recently premiered at the Calgary International Film Festival and won Best Short Documentary, Best Direction in a Short Documentary and Best Cinematography in a Short Documentary at the Vancouver Asian Film Festival last month.
You can stream OVERTIME for free via TELUS originals.
