MyMovies.Africa™, Kenyan-made, Mobile-first Digital Cinema Extension is streaming Sleeping Warrior the inspiring true story of Africa’s first female Lacrosse team from the mountain of Kenya to all 195 Countries and territories worldwide.
The 92-minute documentary followed their journey across the globe to the 2019 World Championships. Transformed by the experience, these determined young women experienced heartbreak and joy, but never gave up on their dreams.
MyMovies.Africa Co-Founder, Mike Strano, expressed joy at being able to make the documentary available to a global audience.
“We are thrilled to exclusively make Sleeping Warrior available to the world on our service, as a rental or purchase. It’s one of our growing catalogue of inspiring True Stories from The Motherland, that MyMovies.Africa™ is making available to Africa and the world” he enthused.
Sleeping Warrior focused on Sharon Opari – a beautiful and dignified 18-year-old girl who was given away at age 7 to work as a maid, after her HIV-infected mother was sent to prison.
Overcoming poverty, malaria and abuse, Sharon was chosen to represent Kenya at the World Lacrosse Championships. Before Lacrosse, Sharon had never left her village and now we are privileged to watch as she traveled across the world to be transformed forever by her time in Canada.
She experienced joy as the team became the darling of the tournament, and were adopted by the local town (Peterborough, Ontario) thereby becoming mini-celebrities. We then watched her heartbreak as the team is knocked-out of the tournament. We also saw as Sharon blossomed while deepening her friendships with her teammates; but then saw her despair as she realised the dream will come to an end, and she will return to her life as a “slave” back in Kenya.
Before and after Canada, we followed Sharon as she tried to find her “real” family. Sharon had always been told her biological Mother had died in prison, so we followed her quest to find her mother’s grave – only to discover that her mother might be alive after all. We watched as Sharon uncovered old Secrets, and encountered shady characters, and her perseverance in her quest for the truth.
And when the family she has been a “slave” for threatened to “delete”’ her if she moves out, we discovered that Sharon has had a real family all along – her Lacrosse family. And with them, she can finally be free.
The documentary was directed by Canadian Screenwriter – Janet Wells, she expressed her delight on the project
“I’m very passionate about female-led storytelling. So, filming Sharon and the girls was important to me” she said.
On his part, multiple award-winning Cinematographer, Timothy Mwaura who co-directed the documentary described it “as a must-see, as it’s the Work of both local and international talent”.
Making her debut as a Producer via this Documentary, Nina Ruiz says her passion in societal matters affecting the youth and women has spilled into Filmmaking, which she regards as a powerful tool for educating and making positive change in Communities.
“I met the girls five years ago, when they started their epic struggle to make history in the world of Lacrosse. They made such an impact on me, that I decided that the world needs to know about them. So, I teamed up with Janet and Tim to make this Film”, says Ruiz.
“The storyline shows how the power of Sports can transform lives”, says Trushna Buddhdev-Patel, Co-Founder & Content Director at MyMovies.Africa™. “And explores the timely themes of female empowerment and finding one’s place in the World.”
Sleeping Warrior has already secured numerous laurels at the Cannes World Film Festival, European Cinematography Awards (ECA), Around International Film Festival (ARFF) in Barcelona, Toronto International Women Film Festival, Toronto Independent Film Festival of Cift, Houston International Sports Film Festival, Chicago Indie Film Awards and Blackstar International Film Festival (BIFF) in Ghana.