Wonder and Kent discuss the documentary Sue Bird: In The Clutch using the untimed birth chart of the subject of the biopic, WNBA player, Sue Bird. Themes that emerge are the powerful determination and unswerving optimism matched with the talent it takes to be a champion. Also Bird’s reputation for being both competitive and a beloved team player. Astrologically these themes correlate with Sun conjunct Pluto and a first quarter Moon in Capricorn, along with Sun in Libra. Also covered: why planets in detriment or in fall don’t spell ruin, but definitely indicate the capacity to act outside cultural parameters and why this can be a very good thing.
Distribution: Streaming on Netflix, also on Video on Demand (more info)
Director: Sarah Dowland
Run Time: 98 minutes
Astrological Data: Sue Bird, Date of birth October 16, 1980, Rodden Rating X, Source Wikipedia
Music Credit: spacedust by airtone
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Rough Transcript
[00:00:13.459] Kent Bye: Hello, my name is Kent Bye. Wonder Bright: And I'm Wonder Bright. Kent Bye: And welcome to the Story All the Way Down podcast, where we're breaking down the archetypal dynamics of stories. This season, we're focusing on documentaries from Sundance 2024. Today's episode is about a piece called Sue Bird: in the Clutch, which is in the premieres section of Sundance 2024. It was directed by Sarah Dowland, and I'm wondering if you'd be willing to read the synopsis for Sue Bird: in the Clutch.
[00:00:40.023] Wonder Bright: In her 21-year-old professional career, WNBA basketball legend Sue Bird has won five Olympic gold medals and become the most successful point guard to ever play the game. Alongside her fiancé, U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe, Sue confronts her next challenge, retiring from the only life she's ever known. A trailblazer in every sense of the word, Sue Bird achieved a powerful impact on the game of basketball. Navigating through adversity in the form of sexism, anti-LGBTQ plus prejudice, and racism toward many of her peers, she managed to forge a path for young women that previously did not exist. The lack of resources for women's sports in the US led Bird to spend her off seasons playing in Russia, where, ironically, she received the recognition and equity that her male counterparts enjoyed back at home. And Peabody award-winning documentarian Sarah Dalland gets to the heart of what makes Bird one of the greatest and most influential athletes the world has ever seen, both on and off the court. And that synopsis was brought to us by Sundance programmer Adam Montgomery.
[00:01:47.406] Kent Bye: Yeah, so this film felt like a sort of hybrid between a sports documentary but also tracking the life of Sue Bird and sort of caught in between the middle of those two, because I feel like Sue Bird's at the end of her career so it's following her as she's contemplating retirement and it follows her into the playoffs and unfortunately at the end they don't end up winning the championship, which I think in terms of the documentary would have made a super compelling story to follow as she goes into her final championship and rides off into the sunset. But because that aspect of the sports documentary element doesn't come through, then they end up doing a retrospective of her entire career as a woman who's been one of the leading stars of women's basketball in the United States, being a part of the WNBA from near the beginning and over 20 years of her life as a professional athlete. So she's somebody who's extremely accomplished and won all the accolades you could possibly win. But there's also the dimension of, like, she's very jovial and doesn't go into a lot of the trauma or hardships. And so it ends up being like she's very optimistic, but yet sometimes the hardship can create a lot of dramatic tension in a way that the story ends up feeling a little bit more flat because of that. I mean, they're obviously exploring a number of the different hardships that women's sports goes through, her process of coming out and being closeted for a long time, a lot of the limits that the women's sports in general is facing. So you see a lot of the larger themes that are being covered. I feel like this film is kind of split between a biography versus reflecting on all these larger dynamics of women's sports and also trying to follow the narrative threads of her own sports journey. So the film kind of feels like it's bouncing between those three braids and those three threads in a way that creates a mix that isn't necessarily focusing super deep on any one of those. I think the center of gravity is obviously telling the story of Sue Bird, but I don't know. I felt like the film, in terms of an arc and a story, felt a little flat in terms of the way that the story is told. I'm trying to articulate what may have been the root of that, but I'd love to hear some of your thoughts on that.
[00:04:04.332] Wonder Bright: Well, I don't think that this film, like, if you fit this film within the canon of the rest of the Sundance documentaries that we watched, the main reason for its existence is that it's showcasing the life of a superb female athlete in a realm where the context is understood to not necessarily support such an endeavor. And Sue Bird is, as you said, she's accomplished extraordinary things in her career. So for that reason, she is remarkable. And the film feels flat because it's a film for Sue Bird fans and for people who want to know more about her personal life. But the thing that's so refreshing about her is the thing that makes this a less than compelling film, which is she doesn’t - you know, I mean, obviously she's human, she has hardship. But I think she's actually just had a very successful life. You know, her obstacles are, by her own admission, not the same kinds of obstacles that her teammates who are black face. You know, she has a different way in. And so … umm.. (sighs)
[00:05:19.022] Kent Bye: We knew this was going to be a tough one.
[00:05:20.203] Wonder Bright: Well, it's not a tough one. There isn't a lot of interesting things to say about this film because the film itself is for fans, of which I would now count myself a member. Like, I'm happy I watched it because it was entertaining and she's rad. But the film itself doesn't have, like, the inherent narrative tension that we want to have in a film. There's no catharsis because she doesn't actually face any big bogeyman. There's no, like, big bear - like, this is - what did you say at the end of the film when we were talking about what it was about? Where you sort of repeated this thing that she just kept saying?
[00:05:57.746] Kent Bye: She said I fucking won a lot. That was one of her final words. Is that what you mean?
[00:06:02.569] Wonder Bright: Did she swear? I don't remember that part. Yeah, you said you were like, you I wrote in my notes, ask Kent to repeat what he said the film was about. And then I have this like laughing emoji because I had asked you what you thought the film was about. And you were like, "and then I won. And then I won. And then I won. And then I won”. Because she freaking won. She just won. She's a winner. She is a world champion. And that is just, that's always compelling to watch. And if you're a sports fan and you're a Sue Bird fan or you're a WNBA fan, you're going to enjoy this film. And if you like watching women win, you're going to enjoy this film. I enjoyed this film. I don't have, like, a whole lot to say about it because there's no narrative tension because, and then I won. And then I won. And then I won, you know, and like, even at the end when like, she doesn't win the last game of her career. She's like, Yeah, but you know, overall, I fucking won.
[00:07:00.715] Kent Bye: I won a lot.
[00:07:01.656] Wonder Bright: I won a lot, you know, because she did. And oh my gosh, it's so much fun. Like, so just to, like, we spent a long time to get to the point. But, like, basically, if you want to watch a film where you're seeing this virtuoso on court winning a lot, and winning with a strategy that, you know, we don't have her time of birth, so we don't have a chart with her ascendant, but we do know that she was born October 16, 1980. And that means that the moon is somewhere in Capricorn, and that the Sun is at 22 degrees Libra conjunct Pluto at 21 degrees Libra. So right out of the gate, we've got this Sun Pluto conjunction in Libra with the Moon somewhere in the region of 90 degrees, separating from the conjunction. So her Moon is waxing, and it's in the first quarter square. So we have this really forward moving momentum and it's coming from this solar expression of Libra, which is very much about - you know, a Libra sun is said to be in its fall because the sun wants to shine in its own right. Like the sun is very happy in Leo because that's the height of the summer in the northern hemisphere. And that's when the Sun is at its zenith and it's going to be the hottest months. So the Sun rules Leo for that reason. You know, it relates to the seasonal idea of the zodiac when the Sun gets to shine the brightest when it's the hottest month. And so when the sun is in Libra, it's in fall because it's beginning of the winter season, but also because In Libra, it's ruled by Venus, and Venus isn't about shining light on itself, it's about shining light on others. And what we have here with this Sun in Libra with Pluto is this player who is notorious for being a team player. It's not just that she's a virtuoso and an exceptionally skilled player, but she's exceptionally skilled at making all the players around her better to an extraordinary degree. And that's actually the thing that this film covers. So if you're interested in astrology, and you're interested in looking at the Sun in fall, quote, in Libra, and you want to understand how that might work better this is a good film to watch - as is Invisible Beauty, which we covered last year with Beth Ann Hardison, who also has a Libra Sun, but some interesting configurations attached to her Libra Sun. And Beth Ann Hardison is trying to figure out how to make a film about her life and her astrologer tells her, well, have all the people that, you know, tell the story like they're the ones who see you. And that's because Beth Ann Hardison spent her whole life shining light onto other people. And this is very much the story of what Sue Bird has done as well. She's like this Libra sun is out there just really giving it to everyone else. But because it's conjunct Pluto, the Sun is super powered and just really able to see beyond the realm of how most of us would normally understand how to shine light onto other people. And with the Moon being in Capricorn somewhere, we don't know exactly where because we don't have the time of birth, but because it's that waxing first quarter square, you know, the moon in Capricorn is supposed to be in detriment. And we do see that Sue Bird is a perfectionist, she is really driven in some ways that are probably not emotionally comfortable. But it is a first quarter square. And it's coming from that space of really wanting to shine the light onto other people. And so there's this way in which her desire for perfectionism and her ability to relate and be interdependent with a team of women who are working towards the same goal, just sort of facilitates this Capricorn Moon in a way that is really extraordinary. Like, it's a really wonderful meditation on what might be possible with detrimented or in fall planets. And yeah, I just came away really liking her. I like her a lot. From now on, I will listen to interviews that she does. I'll be curious to know more about her when I see her.
[00:11:34.928] Kent Bye: Yeah, we've talked previously around the Gauquelin data and how athletes often have a Mars signature either on their Ascendant or Midheaven, and we don't have a timed chart for Sue Bird, so we don't know if her Mars is on one of the angles. But we do see that it's a very tight sextile to Saturn, so her Mars is at two degrees of Sag and then Saturn at three degrees Libra. So you have this tight sextile between what I see is like this signature of athletes who have the Mars of competition and with that connection to Saturn, a lot of hard work and determination. You have a number of sequences of her going through injuries and then really just busting her ass to come back and to get healthy again. And there's also very tight opposition between Mercury at seven degrees Scorpio and Chiron at seven degrees Taurus. And so there is some discussions around her identity of being LGBTQ plus IA. She's gay. She's married to Megan Rapinoe, who's a very out soccer star on the Olympic team. They actually met at the Olympics in 2016. And, you know, they go through a little bit of that when Sue Bird's going back to the Olympics in 2020 or at least 2021. It was delayed a year. It's in Tokyo. But yeah, you know, Megan being a very out lesbian and Sue being very closeted, she had said a number of times that, you know, well, people already know that I'm out, but she's like, no, you haven't actually made it.
[00:13:03.695] Wonder Bright: I mean, you know, I think this is like a classic situation where Sue Bird is just not somebody who, like, she just wasn't very politicized until she met Megan. And Megan, the way that Megan thinks about it is that she has this opportunity to change lives by being out and to like really be a voice for people who maybe don't have that voice. And I think Sue Bird, like, well, for all the reasons that we were talking about in the beginning, where like her story is not one of hardship, there's not like this like strong protagonist antagonist experience. It's not like there's this massive conflict at the source of her soul's creation. She's just a fairly uncomplicated person, I think, you know, like she's doing her thing and hasn't had to think very deeply about things in a certain way. And maybe just isn't inclined that way, you know, not, like, the most reflective person, just really like this pure spirit, out there playing her game. And I think her relationship with Megan just had her think about things differently in a way that I'm excited to see where she goes next, because when she applies that kind of thinking to her life and what she might want to do with her life after being a pro athlete, I think she might be about to stumble into some of the most important work of her life. That's just a guess. Because I think she just approaches life with the kind of curiosity and interest and engagement that can come from someone who isn't self-reflective and is very much in the pursuit of excellence in their field and doesn't meet a lot of resistance to that end. Like, this is somebody who thinks of themselves as accomplished and in that unquestioning attitude and that ability to like really work hard in the pursuit of their objectives, she's someone who can accomplish extraordinary things. So I'm very curious to see where she goes next.
[00:15:11.345] Kent Bye: Yeah, I think actually when I think about this film, there's quite a number of different signatures throughout each of the different Houses. If I'll just sort of quickly go through like the way that biography can reflect the different contextual domains, because there aren't any specific planetary signatures that are really jumping out at me aside from the Mars and Saturn, I see how this film is really comprehensively covering many different contextual domains. So the center of gravity for me is like the 10th House with this like career and reputation It's a film retrospective of her career, but her career is very much like a 5th House domain. It's sports. It's entertainment So there's a lot of the sports dynamics there throughout the course of her career. She has a number of injuries so a number of times that she gets injured in this kind of 6th House expression of how she has to recover from those injuries and It goes into her 1st House, her identity, how she identifies as her sexuality, and in the context of her 7th House of Megan Rapinoe. And it shows them at home in their 4th House expression of them being home together talking. So you kind of get a sense of what she's like at home. But also this 12th House expression of her sexuality is kind of the secret or being in the closet as it were. So a way that she's not disclosing all the different details about her sexuality until she meets Megan Rapinoe. The 11th House is a lot of the community and being on a team and her teammates and the way that she has a lot of assists and is helping facilitate her teammates, like you had mentioned, but also near the end, it gets into a lot of the more collective bargaining agreements that she starts to get into. You don't get too much around the 9th House or 8th House. Maybe some of her philosophy is just generally kind of, like, optimistic or maybe some moral implications of playing in Russia. She didn't seem to take a strong moral stand on the implications of that. And yeah, a lot of the film is about this kind of 3rd House communicating about her life or her being in the limelight of the media throughout the course of her life. And I think the other big focus of this film is looking at the 2nd House implications where women's sports isn't paid a lot of money. She has to go over to Russia in order to actually make a go of it. And near the end, during this collective bargaining agreement that she's involved with, she's trying to bring more money into having these sports athletes be paid. So there's a lot of larger dynamics of women's sports and how the competition is a great disparity. So yeah, I think that covers most of the houses that are represented in this, maybe not really diving too much into the 9th House or 8th House of death. But yeah, when I think about the signatures, I think about how this film is actually hitting each of those, but not any one of them that's really jumping out at me.
[00:17:50.256] Wonder Bright: Yeah, I would also perhaps just draw attention to the fact that the film is a retrospective of her life from the first person perspective of herself as she reaches retirement age, which, of course, for athletes is like relatively young, often in your 30s. And she's in her early 40s when she retires. And the astrological signature that we can point to to look at that is that Saturn is in Capricorn when she first begins to really seriously contemplate retirement. And she plays one more year after the conversation has entered the public discourse. And it's a year that all the fans are just so ecstatic to have her back for just that one last year. But it's pretty well understood by herself and her fans that it is going to be her last year. But Saturn has been going through Capricorn and Aquarius since, like, 2017. So it covers that whole period. And Saturn is about age and especially older age. And it is about contemplation, as we've spoken about before, because it's so far away from the Earth. It's the farthest planet we can see with our naked eye. So the ancient astrologers would have thought of this as being cold and distant and removed. But from that cold distance, we can kind of have a perspective. And so there's a sense that as Saturn is going through Capricorn and it's hitting her Moon that she's beginning to think about her maturity, she's beginning to think about her age, you know, this is probably like a really difficult time for her emotionally, which she expresses, but in typical Capricorn fashion, we don't experience it ourselves, you know, like, I suspect it's possible that a lot of what we're experiencing is a lack of inner conflict. It's just that she's not telling us because she's got her moon in Capricorn. So, like, buck up, buckaroo. Like, them's the brakes. There's no crying in baseball or basketball, come to find out. So she's just getting on with it. You know, she's not feeling sorry for herself. But she is probably feeling it, you know, in a way that isn't completely obvious in the film, because that's just not how she chooses to write her history. But yeah, there's definitely this experience of an ending, and not a real sense of what's going to happen next, and some potential fear around that. But I have to say that watching the film, I don't have any fear. I'm actually really curious to know where this person puts her vision next, because it's just impossible to imagine that she's going to be without one for very long.
[00:20:35.618] Kent Bye: Yeah. And so when we start to think about films as a remedial measure, then who would you prescribe Sue Bird in The Clutch to?
[00:20:43.058] Wonder Bright: I would prescribe it for people who are interested in planets in detriment or in fall as an example of the miraculous ways that people with planets in so-called difficult situations. I would prescribe this for people with planets in these - I would prescribe this film for people who are interested in biopics or stories of people who have the lights in poor essential dignity, which would be her Moon in detriment and her Sun in fall. It's pretty well understood that that doesn't mean that the person is ruined, but it does mean that those planets won't operate the way that they are, quote, supposed to. And this is a film of somebody who doesn't operate the way that she's supposed to and how that is actually, like, this really great and wonderful thing. So it's a very good remedial measure if you have your Sun in Libra, this is what's possible. If you have your Moon in Capricorn, think about this, try this on, you know, what if we don't feel sorry for ourselves but we actually like inculcate ourselves against self-pity and use that to push ourselves farther. That may come at cost for us emotionally in ways that even our biographers are not able to show accurately, but we will become capable of extraordinary things.
[00:22:17.987] Kent Bye: Yeah. And when I think about what I want to bear witness to in this film, I want to just bear witness to how much Sue Bird actually won in her life. I mean, she did win a lot, like five gold medals, like how many championships in the WNBA and other places, like basically anywhere she went, she was a part of helping to win championships from high school and college all the way up in professional scales and, like, the international sports of the Olympics. I mean, that is quite an accomplishment of what she was able to do in her career. And I'm, very grateful to have gotten this visceral experience of watching her career in this retrospective of someone who just wins a lot. As I had joked at the end, like, oh, and then and then I won and then I won and then I won. You know, it's like sometimes when we're watching this in the context of Sundance, which is, like, when I go through and look at the planetary significations of so many other films, it's like Saturn, Saturn limits, blocks, constraints, you know, all this kind of hardship. And that this is a very Jupiterian expression of a lot of winnings.
[00:23:21.901] Wonder Bright: that she worked really hard for! - and her Jupiter is conjunct her Saturn. So, for what it's worth. Yeah. Yeah. She did win a lot. It's awesome. It's a really fun film. It's entertaining. It's easy to watch. It's really great to watch her and Megan Rapinoe together. They're just a force to be reckoned with. And I want to bear witness to whatever comes next for each and both of them.
[00:23:52.173] Kent Bye: Awesome. Well, that's all we have for today. And I just wanted to thank you for listening to the Story All the Way Down podcast. And if you enjoy the podcast, then please do spread the word, tell your friends and consider signing up to the newsletter at storyallthewaydown.com. Thanks for listening. Wonder Bright: Thank you.
