Playing Through
2022, NR, US, Drama, 91 minutes
Florida Film
Filmmakers in Attendance
Director: Balbinka Korzeniowska
Producer: Peter Odiorne
Writer: Curtis Jordan
Cast: Andia Winslow, Julia Rae, Sam Daly, Ronnie G. Blevins, Moses Jones, Michael Mendez, Tim Murphy
Playing Through is a fictional story about a real-life pioneer of women’s golf.
Late in her career, Ann Gregory, dubbed the Queen of Negro Golf, finds the courage to be the first woman of color to enter the USGA Women’s Amateur Championship. She collides with Babs Whatling, a privileged white woman from the South who is searching for her own identity. This highly publicized match forever changes them and the game.
Ann has overcome much adversity in her early years. She grew up in Aberdeen, Mississippi,where she lost her parents at an early age and was forced to live with a cold, unfriendly white family who treated her poorly. Now she and her husband, Percy Gregory, and new baby girl, JoAnn, live in Gary, Indiana, in the early 1940s. Ann falls in love with the game of golf and quickly moves through the ranks to become the undisputed Queen of Negro Golf by 1950.
Ann is a driven and forceful woman, but she has resisted being a voice for racial equality. “I am an athlete, not an activist.” Confronted by her daughter, Ann decides to enter the all-white USGA Women’s Amateur Championship.
Babs comes from an old New England family. From an early age, she pushed the boundaries of what is expected. She is a very independent and confident young woman, but it is an immature and unearned independence.
On a trip to Georgia, she meets Richard Whatling. Richard is very rich and ‘fun,’ as is his family. But once they are married, the social expectations of the family and friends become a reality. Her independence and adventurous spirit are threatened.
Golf gives her independence. She plays to win and she wins everything. When Richard threatens to stop it, she makes a bargain with him. Win the Amateur, or else!
Both Ann and Babs are viciously competitive. The world around both of these women wants them to be bitter enemies. But as the game progresses, each woman gains a respect for the other. They have similar needs; both struggle to be self-fulfilled and independent.
For a moment in time, these two women from different worlds will make an everlasting difference in one another’s lives.
