Still of pro-softball G.O.A.T. and Rawlings Gold Glove winner A.J. Andrews from Megan Shutzer’s Knocking Down The Fences. Shutzer's forthcoming short Mother tells the story of another strong, determined woman, Malia Spanyol, who is determined to build a space for the next generation of San Francisco women and femmes. The film is one of three selected for an LGBTQIA short documentary lab run by Hulu and Field of Vision’s If/Then Shorts program.

KNOCKING DOWN THE FENCES

Filmmaker: Meg Shutzer
Year of Completion: 2019
TRT: 12 mins
Country of Origin: U.S.

Knockout baseballer AJ Andrews, the first woman to win a Rawlings Gold Glove, struggles to make it as one of the best professional softball players in the world.

Knocking Down the Fences tells the story of a superstar athlete you might not have heard of, and tackles the reasons why the sports industry hasn’t put her on your radar. AJ Andrews is the first woman to win a Rawlings Gold Glove, an award that has been given to the best fielders in Major League Baseball for decades. Her skills are outstanding, but winning the award did not change the fact that Andrews earns less than $15k a year as a professional softball player. And though Andrews is hopeful, she still has to fight against an industry that is more willing to pay female athletes to model than to play their sport.