Becoming Ruby

A black woman from the mostly white city of Bellingham, Washington, Brooklyn Bell found her place outdoors, mountain biking competitively, with help from an avatar she created and then emulated. As a young, female, athlete with an artistic sensibility, Brooklyn, like Ruby, painstakingly constructs her identity as an outsider, literally and figuratively. She notes a fine distinction “between being welcome and being included,” but concludes that when it comes to outdoor sports, “when I get into the action of the thing, it doesn’t matter what I look like or who I am. What matters is being connected to the dirt.”

World Premiere