Sundance Review: The Brittney Griner Story Confronts Trauma, Resilience, and the Politics of Freedom
As an entry in ESPN’s long-running 30 for 30 series, The Brittney Griner Story arrives with all the hallmarks of the brand: rigorous reporting, intimate access, and a willingness to tackle the messy, deeply human events that fall between sports and society. What director Alexandria Stapleton delivers, though, feels even more expansive — a portrait of Brittney Griner not as a headline, bargaining chip, or political lightning rod, but as a woman whose life has been shaped by love, identity, and a country that both elevates and fails her. I cried multiple times during this deeply emotional doc.
The film opens in Paris at the 2024 Olympics, where Brittney Griner stands before the American flag with tears in her eyes — a moment of catharsis for an athlete who spent nearly a year imprisoned in Russia after being accused of smuggling narcotics. From that striking prologue, Stapleton weaves between Griner’s 2022 detainment and the decades of life that led her there: her childhood in Texas, her discovery of her sexuality, the bullying she endured, and the transformative joy of basketball that changed everything.
Stapleton centers Brittney and her wife, Cherelle, recounting their perfect Valentine’s Day weekend and the rushed packing for Brittney’s February 2022 flight — a routine trip in her seven-year career playing in Russia to make ends meet due to WNBA pay disparity. But from the second she landed in Moscow, something was different: heightened scrutiny, invasive searches, and a vape cartridge with less than a gram of legally prescribed cannabis oil becoming the grounds for a nine-year gulag sentence.
The film is unequivocally political. It addresses Russia’s motives, the U.S. response, the weaponization of wrongful detainment, and the racism, misogyny, and homophobia that fueled online discourse back home. Stapleton never sanitizes these forces; she puts them in plain view, letting Griner and her circle speak with clarity and exhaustion.
Griner speaks frankly about her sexuality — the pain of growing up different, the confusion and shame imposed by others, and the long road to self-acceptance. Her family members reflect on the years when they struggled to understand her. Stapleton counterbalances those difficult memories with heartwarming footage of Brittney and Cherelle playing with their son, underscoring how identity and love anchor the film rather than tragedy.
What elevates the documentary is the material Brittney brought home with her: A sudoku book that doubled as her journal, handwritten letters (her only allowed communication), and never-before-seen photos and videos from inside Russian prisons. These appear throughout the timeline like artifacts of survival, showing how she fought to stay mentally present during the darkest months of her life.
Interviews with her parents, sister, agent Lindsay Kagawa Colas, best friend Janelle Roy, her Russian legal team, and fellow detainees like Masha Alyokhina and Paul Whelan expand the portrait. WNBA figures and journalists contextualize both Griner’s career and the “We Are Brittney” movement, showing how the league mobilized around her.
Rather than bending to speculation or partisan narratives, the documentary presents the slow, frustrating, and dangerous diplomatic process in all its nuance. Cherelle’s determination, and the emotional toll it took, is one of the film’s most powerful throughlines. Her advocacy, combined with relentless pressure from players, fans, and journalists, forms the backbone of the story.
Stapleton closes by returning to where we began: Brittney at the Olympics, free, emotional, and finally able to breathe. It’s a cathartic, explicit ending that acknowledges both her trauma and her triumph.
There’s little to critique. Structurally, the documentary is straightforward and occasionally dense with political context, but that density feels necessary for accuracy rather than a flaw. The film knows exactly what story it's telling and never loses sight of the human being at its center.
The Brittney Griner Story is not just a sports documentary — it’s a fierce, emotional chronicle of identity, injustice, and endurance. Through Stapleton’s clear-eyed direction and Brittney Griner’s own vulnerability, the film restores personhood to a woman who was reduced to a flashpoint in global politics. It is one of the most affecting 30 for 30 entries yet, and a standout premiere at Sundance.
I give The Brittney Griner Story 5 out of 5 stars.