A group of young women from Maple Ridge who spent their teen years striving to curl their way to a national championship can now watch their coming-of-age story on the big screen.
The documentary Curl Power has enjoyed such success on the festival circuit that it's been picked up by Cineplex, and has been playing at the cinema in Langley and 70 theatres across the country.
It tells the story of the five-girl team of Brooke Aleksic, Savannah Miley, Ashley Dezura, Amy Wheatcroft and Hannah Smeed through their teen years, from 14 until graduation.
"They were full of energy and vivacious, and we had a great chemistry right off the bat," recalled director Josephine Anderson.
She chose a group of girls with some impressive lineage in the team 4KGirl$.
Aleksic's mom is Shannon Joanisse who manages the Golden Ears Winter Club in Maple Ridge that the team called home. She was also known as Shannon Aleksic who played in five Canadian women's championships. Dezura and Wheatcroft are the daughters of Diane Dezura and Georgina Wheatcroft, who played with Kelley Law and won a world championship in 2000, and Olympic bronze in 2002. They are great coaches and mothers.
Anderson explained audiences love the film not because it's a great sports story, but because it's a story of friendship, and growing up together.
"It [curling] was their northern star as they were growing up," said Anderson. "It became this grounding force in their lives."
"It was just part of their upbringing, and became a beautiful backdrop for their coming of age."
Curl Power debuted at the Hot Docs festival in Toronto in 2024, and it has been rockin' ever since.
"It's extremely rare to have a theatrical release for a documentary, so we are very privileged and lucky," said Anderson.
It was a Maple Ridge team, and both Smeed and Dezura grew up in the city. The other girls are from Abbotsford and Langley.
Smeed spoke to The News from Victoria, where she lives with six girls and studies anthropology and Indigenous studies at UVic, and is headed for law school. She loves the film that has been created about her team.
"I'm really excited for a lot of people to see it," she said, noting it will introduce people to curling, and she hopes it models healthy relationships for younger girls.
She said high-level sports creates unique bonds.
"You become so close so quickly, and it was like a second family," said Smeed. "We were together almost every single day for like six years."
She wasn't the girl who wants to photobomb and get in front of a camera, and was hesitant about being part of a documentary,
"I was really unsure of it at first. I'm quite introverted, so the thought of having someone constantly filming me, and especially at really vulnerable, intimate, moments, was a little scary to begin with," she said. "But Josephine and her team made it so easy and so comfortable,"
After about six months the cameras didn't really exist for the girls, but the filming lasted four years.
"It's really nice to have this professionally documented time of my life," Smeed said. "It's probably one of the best things that's every happened to me."
"Curling is just the thing we all have in common, and the thing we all share. She said. "But at the root, it's about girlhood and friendships and important relationships in our lives."
She's watched it several times, and a favourite scene is in Dezura's bedroom. They lived close to each other in a neighbourhood near 240th Street, and after a breakup with a boy, Smeed went to get a tarot card reading
"It really showed how close we are, in that scene together," she said.
She said Maple Ridge people will recognize their hometown, and the film features local landmarks like the Alouette River and the Top of the World hill that overlooks the city.
"It'll be fun for people to see that," said Smeed.
Sav Miley still lives in Langley, and is blown away by the attention the film has received.
"When we first started, we weren't expecting it to be as big as it is," she said. "We definitely weren't expecting it to be in Cineplex – that's really crazy."
She's watched it about seven times.
"Every time I see it, I see something new, and I always cry," she said. "It just makes me very emotional to revisit that point in my life. It's very special."
Among her favourite scenes is one with her grandmother.
"We're dancing in her house, and it's so beautiful," she said.
Miley said the girls love the film.
"For my expectations – it completely blew them out of the water," she said.
"We filmed 400 hours of footage, and we were like 'What is she going to do with all this?' And then a beautiful story was put together, that really encapsulated our friendship, and our teenagehood, growing up together."
