EL SEGUNDO HERALD April 29, 2021 Page 3
Entertainment
Sydnee-Anne Moeller
Rewarded for Lacrosse Play
By Gregg McMullin
The El Segundo high school’s lacrosse
program has gained popularity over the years.
The sport itself has gained momentum ever
since Steve Wood helped introduce the sport
to the City of El Segundo years ago. The
boy’s lacrosse program has had its share of
success with Cory Lund, Maximilian Shultz,
and Lucas Roscoe, who each played at the
colligate level. Now the girl’s team, which
is having a successful season, can boast a
standout player geared to play at the colligate
level.
Sydnee-Anne Moeller is just a junior but
has gained enough interest that colleges are
beckoning the talented attacker/midfielder
to come their way. A number of schools
at Division I, Division II, and Division III
have interest, but she is concentrating on
attending the University of Colorado. The
Buffalos compete in the Pac-12 Conference
and regularly hunt for a berth in the NCAA
tournament.
Sydnee-Anne, who goes by Syd, is one of
those bright student athletes who is articulate
beyond her years and a great student in the
classroom. She says she got interested in
playing lacrosse when she was in the sixth
grade during a PE class. She enjoyed playing
so much she joined a recreation club team
coached by Steve Wood, better known to
most as Woodie. For those who aren’t aware,
Woodie helped organize El Segundo’s first
lacrosse programs at the recreation level
and later to help jump-start the high school
program.
Syd became a natural after playing on all
her club teams. She was one of her team’s
top scorers on each team or level she played
on. “I’ve played on many club teams because
one of the most challenging things with
playing lacrosse in Southern California is
how fast the game is growing,” she says. She
Sydnee Moeller, seen here on the attack, is one of the top juniors in the South Bay
See Sports, page 8
‘Gunda’ Review: A Wordless Film of a
Mother Pig Stuns in Black and White
By Morgan Rojas for cinemacy.com
Extreme animals rights activist Joaquin
Phoenix has teamed up with director Victor
Kossakowsky and NEON to bring the arthouse
film Gunda to the big screen. Taking on an
executive producer role, Phoenix’s passion
in support of the film is clear, stating, “Kossakovsky
has crafted a visceral meditation on
existence that transcends the normal barriers
that separate species. It is a film of profound
importance and artistry.”
Shot in black and white and with no dialogue
or soundtrack, Gunda chronicles the
unfiltered lives of a mother pig, a flock of
chickens, and a herd of cows with masterful
intimacy. This observational documentary
sits in a class of its own with its quietly
commanding message of animal symbiosis
in the natural world.
Nothing pulls at my heartstrings more than
a good animal documentary that is authentic
in it storytelling and not set up to create
maximum emotional impact. On the contrary,
Gunda‘s lack of any narrative whatsoever
is what makes the film so devastatingly
beautiful. It requires some mental stamina
to sit through, at times I had to wonder if
the camera was left accidentally rolling for
minutes on end before any sort of action or
movement appears in frame. Confident in its
directorial choices and unique sensibilities,
it’s no surprise that Viktor Kossakowsky
calls Gunda his most personal and important
film he has made as a filmmaker and as a
human being.
Gunda is the definition of an experimental
film, and I’ve never seen anything quite like
it. It’s not really comparable to the beloved
David Attenborough BBC documentaries
because there is no dialogue whatsoever
here. It stands apart from the nature docs
on Disney+ because of its drastic black &
white look. Gunda‘s stark beauty resembles
Film Review
See Film Review, page 8