ABC News
Interview on national news: http://www.lolafilms.net/ABCNewsInt.mp4
Variety
With Sundance buzz magnet "Girlfight" hitting theaters soon, enterprising programmers might get some mileage out of the nonfiction view of women's boxing portrayed in Laura Plotkin's "Red Rain" ...More
L.A. Times Weekend
It's not easy being the women's junior-welterweight champion of the world ....More
Village Voice
Jockflick
Contributors: Alisa Solomon, Michael Eskenazi, Joanna Cagan Sports Intern: Joshua D. Gaynor Sports Editor: Miles D. Seligman
"I was a Lesbian way before I was a fight says Gina "Boom Boom" Guidi, flashing her irresistible grin. Her fascinating story- from working class roots to struggles with addiction to a redemptive quest for the junior middleweight title-is documented in Red Rain, showing this weekend at the NY Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. Tenderly cradling a rabbit in her massive arms, pounding an opponent and then suggesting they keep in touch, weeping in frustration and rage after a cruel homophobic act, Guidi emerges as an outrageous, compelling, and humane representative of a sometimes inhuman sport. © Village Voice
Sight and Sound
'Girl fight' heralds a new genre -- the women's boxing movie. It's a spectacle that's a cause for celebration, declares B. Ruby Rich ....More
LA Weekly
Gina "Boom Boom" Guidi can kick your ass. A monument of will power and courage, the Northern Californian. native known as the Blonde Bomber, has fought back from a broken home and her own struggles with alcoholism, battling stereotypes as both a lesbian and an athlete on her rod to professional title. Laura Plotkin's documentary is as much a profile of Guidi as it is a fascinating study of the world of women's boxing, and gripping from the first frame to the last; even the nearly too-long segment on Guidi;s championship bout in Las Vegas is a-nail biter! ©LA Weekly
San Francisco Magazine
When the projector broke down-twice-during the world premiere of red rain, Laura Plotkin's unexpectedly touching tale of an abundantly tattooed, loud-mouthed lesbian boxer from San Leandro, Plotkin kept her cool. ...More
Release Print Magazine
As depicted in Laura Plotkin's invigorating and perceptive one-hour documentary, Red Rain. female boxing is, contrary to popular perception, neither a made-for-TV gimmick nor a circus freak show ...More
Oakland Tribune
Although Tantalized by film for decades, Laura Plotkin wasn't aware of women's boxing, the subject of her documentary "Red Rain," until recently ...More
Curve Magazine
Righteous Babes
By Judith Redding
Review: Red Rain Boxing is no longer taboo for women, so it was inevitable that a film about a dyke boxer would be made. However, few could have foreseen that Red Rain, director Laura Plotkin's look at women's world welterweight champion Gina "Boom Boom" Guidi, would be so good. We all fantasize, while we're smacking that heavy bag, about stepping into the ring professionally. Our fantasies dissolve after viewing what Guidi has to go through, both as a woman and as a dyke, just to fight. Case in point: Ms. Magazine refused to do a story about Guidi, noting that "there's nothing feminist about two women' hitting each other." In fact, boxing and the discipline it requires helped get Guidi off drugs and alcohol and pull her family together. When heterosexual boxer Christi Martin can appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated, it seems time that queer boxers like Guidi should get more recognition. © Curve
Urban View
The Bay Area is known around the world as a refuge for the individual maverick with a vision, as well as a pit stop for the itinerant hipster film is gradually supplementing literature as modern culture's primary method of communication and reflection ...More
LA Weekly
BY Eddie Muller, (boxing historian and Author of Dark city, the Lost Word of Film Noir and Grindhouse)
Laura Plotkin's Red Rain is strong, subtle and smart. Like the subject, Gina "Boom Boom" Guidi, it doesn't waste time dilly dallying with political correctness or foiling some trendy gender-message-it wades straight in and goes for the gut. What emerges is an evocative profile of a remarkable person who happens to be a boxer, who happens to be a woman, who happens to be a lesbian. Anybody got a problem with that? ©2002 L.A. Weekly
Chicago Reader
Commentary by Fred Camper, Ted Shen, Larence Bommer, Lee Gerstein, Jack Helbig and adam Langer
Laura Plotkin's video documents the life of boxer Gina "Boom Boom" Guidi. Skillfully inter-cutting diverse voices with Guidi's, Plotkin captures the woman's energy and emotional strength: Gina the oldest child of a single mom, Guidi had to raise three younger brothers and recover from drug and alcohol abuse to become the thoroughly grounded person we see in the film. Though she's openly a lesbian she argues that her sexuality has nothing to do with her being a boxer, and while she's mature enough to ignore a homophobic slur from a magazine publisher, she is clearly hurt by it. Her vulnerability is visible in the ring too, her face registering fear and hesitation as well as aggressiveness. © Chicago Reader
SF Weekly
Punch and Gina
When Red Rain premiered Last month at the Film Arts Festival of Independent Cinema, it sold out so quickly that over 100 viewers were turned away at the door. Those people should queue up early for tonight's benefit screening of the film, Laura Plotkin's one hour documentary about San Leandro boxer Gina "Boom Boom" Guidi, who trains at Oakland's renowned King Gym and works at an ad agency to support herself. The film traces Guidi's entry into the sport during a troubled adolescence up through her national and world championship titles, her professional record (101-1 with five KOs), and her attempts to broaden boxing's professional potential, by petitioning the '96 Olympics to include women's boxing (they haven't yet). Guidi will raffle off a pair of her gloves at the event, and all proceeds will help cover the costs of entering Red Rain in international film festivals. © San Francisco Weekly
San Francisco Bay Guardian
Doc and Droll
Documentaries are often where the real action is for Bay Area' cinema in particular, and gay cinema in general-for art's sake at least, there's something to be said in favor of the variously heroic, articulate, or just plain eccentric "characters" that social marginalization fosters. Laura Plotkin's excellent Red Rain takes an admiring gander at San Leandro based professional boxer Gina "Boom Boom" Guidi; Karen Everett's more personal My Femme Divine dives into the butch! femme dynamic. It's anybody's guess what The Execution of Justice will bring: Based on Emily Mann's play. © San Francisco Bay Guardian
San Francisco Bay Guardian
Red Rain
By Victoria Harvey
Meet Gina "Boom-Boom" Guidi, a 35-year-old San Leandro resident in quest of the Women's Boxing' . Middleweight World Championship- and if that doesn't spell "lesbian role model" to you, just give her an hour to K.O. the indecision. Quite the study' in butch charisma, Guidi is unapologetic about her "manly" profession, her past substance-abuse struggles, even the tattoos she's gotten to cover up old girlfriends' names. Laura Plotkin's wonderful documentary will have you hoisting B-A-B-E placards from the stands. © San Francisco Bay Guardian
Metro Source
We're the worst softball team in history," complains one of the twenty-something gay boys in The Broken Hearts League ...More
Jane Magazine
I've heard about things coming in threes, but fives? Directors have been going crazy over broads punching each other's lights out ...More
Venice Magazine
"Red Rain" This documentary is an invigorating and perceptive look into the life of Gina "Boom Boom" Guidi, the reigning women's junior welterweight champion of the world. At first glance Gina's life seems to revolve around a vividly punishing training schedule and little else, but dIrector Laura Plotkin works to gradually reveal Guldl's struggle with poverty, alcoholism and homophobia, In the end. the film may be less about tile sport of boxing and more about one woman's courage and tenacity In the face of overwhelming physical and emotional odds. Red Rajn Is showing as part of the Santa Monica Film Festival's. © Venice Magazine
San Jose Mercury News
The 85 films also cover topics from gender bending to re-framing Sept. 11. Oakland director Laura Plotkin's film "21" depicts the brutal beating of an Arabic looking woman 10 days after the World Trade Center attack. "I think it's really important to highlight the 'other' and not just get the status quo viewpoint," said Plotkin. "There are a lot of other viewpoints on the spectrum that we need to listen, explore and research." ...More
Chicago Reader
In September 2001 independent filmmakers Jay Rosenblatt and Caveh Zahedi invited 150 colleagues to address the recent terror attacks, and though none of these 13 videos culled from the project is superb on its own, the mix of perspectives encourages us to think analytically about our own responses and the sources of the terrorists' hatred ...More
Killer Movie
Before we are inundated with what will no doubt be a lion's share of indifferent movies about the events of 9/11, take the time to see UNDERGROUND ZERO, a thoughtful, intelligent take on what that day and its aftermath mean ...More
Indie Wire
"New Yorkers aren't good victims," attests performance artist Laurie Anderson in the documentary From the Ashes: 10 Artists "It's not our style, We don't even know how to be victims" ...More
East Bay Express
If you're like a lot of people, you're probably sick of hearing about 9/11. Yet the pervasive sense of dread -- and wonder -- refuses to go away ....More
San Francisco Bay Gaurdian
You tired of watching channel zero in the days after Sept. 11, and so did local filmmaking powerhouses Jay Rosenblatt and Caveh Zahedi. So they sent out a proposal, asking friends and colleagues to come up with short films ...More
San Francisco Chronicle
'Underground Zero' a needed catharsis It's the first film to be made, released after terrorist attack ...More
Filmmaker Magazine
In the weeks following September 11, San Francisco-based filmmakers Caveh Zahedi (I Was Possessed by God, I Don't Hate Las Vegas Anymore) and Jay Rosenblatt (King of the Jews, Human Remains) came together to find their way out of the media morass that characterized coverage of September 11 ...More
Sight and Sound
Is it too far-fetched to conceive of the World Trade Center in the minutes before its collapse as an architectural equivalent of the atomic mushroom cloud? ...More
The Seattle Times
Everyone has a story to tell about Sept. 11, 2001. Ask anyone and they can tell you where they were, who they knew, what they saw...More
Chicago Tribune
As the one-year anniversary of the destruction that rained down on Sept. 11, 2001, approaches, Chicagoans, like their counterparts across the country, will have to decide how to commemorate that tragic day...More