Attention sports fans: Naomi Osaka is officially swinging into our Netflix queues. The tennis champion will debut a three-part documentary series about her life and meteoric rise on the streaming platform later this month—just in time for her to compete in the Tokyo Olympics, yay!
Directed by Oscar nominee Garrett Bradley (Time), Naomi Osaka will focus on Naomi’s journey with the sport, highlighting themes of “life’s purpose, about personal worth, about the courage that it takes to allow one’s personal values to inform their work and vice versa,” the filmmaker said in a statement. Bradley added, “More than anything, I’d hope people can feel the power of empathy and to feel encouraged to take chances in life, perhaps especially in moments where the stakes can feel impossibly high.”
The series comes following Naomi’s withdrawal from the French Open in May and from Wimbledon in June to focus on her mental health, but fans will get a chance to see her before her appearance in the Tokyo Olympics with the release of this new show. Here’s what we know so far:
Naomi Osaka premieres July 16.
Keep an eye out next Friday—less than 10 days from now, mark your calendars, babes!—for three 40-minute episodes of the docuseries. In the meantime, you can watch the trailer here:
Executive producers include LeBron James (casual), his business partner Maverick Carter, Bradley herself, and more.
It touches on fame, heritage, activism, and more.
In a statement about her self-titled series, Naomi said, “I feel like the platform that I have right now is something that I used to take for granted, and for me I feel like I should be using it for something. I believe, instead of following, you have to make your own path.”
The series follows Naomi over a two-year journey as she cemented her status as one of the world’s best tennis players and also began to use her voice on and off the court (such as when she wore masks honoring Black lives lost to police brutality and violent acts of racism).
From the looks of the trailer, the show is also set to explore Naomi’s Haitian and Japanese background as well as her family life. “Whenever I’m in hard situations, [my dad has] always told me my ancestors were on the ship for, like, 40 days,” she says in the preview. “I use that as strength.”
Source: Read Full Article
