Professor’s film work renewed

Local filmmaker and University of Ottawa professor Lois Siegel had the recent honour of having her film Baseball Girls digitized by the National Film Board (NFB). The film is a documentary about women in baseball and the struggle they have faced over the years for the inclusion of female participation in the sport. Siegel narrates and uses a wide variety of material in the film including interviews with owners and former players of various baseball teams, historical footage of old-time women’s baseball games, and more recent clips from tournaments and events. “Baseball Girls isn’t timely, it’s a history of women in baseball,” Siegel explains. “The main message of the film is that if you want to do something you should be able to go out there and do it. The women in the film fought for what they believed in, despite the prejudice that they faced. Baseball Girls will not become extinct because it is pertinent at anytime to anybody that watches it. It’s the only film of its kind that goes through the entire history of women’s baseball. “ And Lois is correct; her film is far from becoming extinct. Debuting at the Montreal International Film Festival in 1995, her film has won various awards including the “Targa Citta’ Di Palmero” at the International Sports Film Festival in Palermo, Italy, a “Film Documentary” award at the 1996 Athens (Ohio) International Film and Video Festival, and a Bronze Apple Award from The National Education Media Network (California) in 1998. The film also played at the Athlete Village during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. This was particularly significant since that Olympiad was the first to include both baseball and softball. Siegel played baseball and softball growing up, and her experiences gave her the inspiration for making the film. She remembers the love she had playing the game as a kid, but also the animosity she had to face trying to play the game she was so passionate for. “I remember playing baseball at a sports camp when I was younger and being the only girl,” Siegel recalls. She was fine with the situation of playing with all boys, but when competitions occurred, the camp would ask the other teams if it would be O.K. with them having a girl playing. “The other teams were fine with it, because they thought it make it easier, but our team ended up doing really well (largely due to Siegel) and came in second overall.” A Little League coach in the United States later approached Siegel about joining their team, but the league would not allow it citing there was a problem with “safety concerns.” Siegel’s university education was in Journalism and Comparative English Literature from Ohio University, but over the years, she has received copious amounts of education in film production by attending various classes, sessions, and workshops. As well, she has worked with multiple filmmakers and people with an extensive background in the field. She has been apart of hundreds of films, working in every aspect from directing her own films to camera operation to casting director; the list goes on. She previously taught film production at St. John Abbott CEGEP and Concordia University in Montreal before coming to the University of Ottawa to teach film as well. Since the making of the film, Siegel’s interest in baseball has been pushed to the side to make room for her other passion: playing the violin/fiddle. Recent projects that she has worked include documentaries such as CBC’s Gambling Boys (teen male gambling addiction), Lip Gloss (female impersonators), Strangers in Town (albinism), and Stunt People. The film can be found on the National Film Board’s website, and viewed at nfb.ca/film/baseball_girls