It started with four friends — Jamiece, TBanks, Ishara, and Z — meeting on a Chicago basketball court for a pick up game. This was back in 2020, still deep in the pandemic, and the players were more than a little rusty. But the game was casual rather than competitive; it was more about the opportunity to play and reconnect rather than the actual sport itself. Sweaty and out of breath, no one realized they were onto something big.
“We left the court feeling re-energized and really excited,” Z told Them. “We want[ed] to bottle that feeling.” For the next pickup game, the group decided to include even more friends, and eventually they opened up the invite on social media. Pretty soon, the court was full of queer and trans folks of color stretching together, shooting hoops, and laughing. By 2021, Swish, Chicago’s first QTBIPOC-centered basketball meetup, was born.
Swish is now the subject of director and filmmaker Sai Selvarajan’s latest short film, We Clap For Airballs. The film, which you can watch below, explores the origins of Swish, the players’ love of the sport, and the healing connections that are formed on and off the court. The title itself is a winky play on the sometimes-derisive term “airball,” which describes a shot that misses the rim and backboard of the basketball net and falls out of bounds. But the title goes deeper, reflecting Swish’s ethos of generosity, community, and bravery — no matter who scores.
“Our number one rule is that we clap for air balls,” Ishara tells Them. “We clap for showing up. It don’t matter how many times you clap, clap even if you miss it because you shot the ball. You came out here and showed up. That’s worth clapping for.”
Watch the film below, and read on for our conversation with Jamiece (she/they), TBanks (she/they), Ishara (they/he), and Z — who now make up the organizing council for Swish — and director Sai about how We Clap For Airballs came together and how they hope it will inspire audiences.
How did Swish get started?
Jamiece (she/they): I really wanted to play basketball. I used to play in high school and I'd play recreationally with friends, but I never felt like I belonged or that I was reflected on the court. So eventually I was like, "I could make a group." That was in 2019 going on 2020, and then everything shut down [because of the pandemic.] I was in the midst of a lot of grief. My best friend had just passed away and I was seeking out community. Eventually, I played basketball with TBanks, Ishara, and Z and I said, “This is my idea, what do you think about it? Do you think it's possible?"And they were all game.
Can you walk me through the process of making the film? How did you all get in touch?
Sai: I found Swish on Instagram and followed them for about six months. The vibes were impeccable — I had done short docs before and I love basketball. There’s so much drama in sports.
I just knew I had to go up to Chicago, and Chicago is such a location — and there’s not a bad angle of that city — so I wanted to capture a little bit of the town where they play. We spent a day in Jamiece's house, talked to everyone, and really got down to how Swish started, everybody's story and why Swish is so important.
The process was to first shoot the interviews and then go shoot the meetups. For the style I knew it just had to be their voice and their story first — Swish has so much style and happiness and joy, it just started coming in.
What was it like being filmed? Was it strange to suddenly be in front of a camera?
Ishara: The first time I saw [the documentary] on a big screen, I sat there and said “Wow.” I knew the cameras were there — and Sai and his team did a great job because they really just moved so stealth — and there are moments where we're just being ourselves [on screen]. And I thought, "Wow, what a beautiful moment to capture."
[In one scene] we had a group hug with someone that we hadn't seen in a while. It's like, "Wow." We have this moment where you're just hugging people and it's beautiful to see it reflected back and how honest everyone is. I think that's one of the things that I admired about Sai's team [is] how they witnessed us in the moments they captured.
Jamiece: I think having the cameras in my house was so interesting because I got to see everyone's story and people be super vulnerable. These are stories that I have heard before, stories that I hear folks just say in passing, like,"Wow, Swish did this for me or I'm staying in Chicago because of Swish," but to hear them retell it in such a vulnerable state to a stranger? That really hit me in a special way. I'm thankful for this experience and [that it] is archived in a way that I can go back to, that people can go back to. We are a part of a very long history of queer people making space for one another and we need to be seen doing that.
TBanks: Watching the film, watching us exist as people … I'm looking at the screen and I'm like, “we look good.” We are the story. I've been saying the word brilliant lately all the time because I think that Black and Brown people are absolutely brilliant.
Seeing it on screen is just like ... Oh yeah, of course. We look good, we feel good, we embody this. There's a swagger that is ours and that is just, I like to say, by nature. By nature we're trendsetters. We show up even in this world that tries to exile us, [as] Indigenous people, colonized people, we still show up fully and confidently as ourselves. You can't take that. That's who we are.
The best stories and films are real stories and a lot of times real stories are from the realest people. And the realest people are the people that are most connected to themselves and that are doing the work of decolonizing their minds, doing the work of liberating themselves. That's when [we] can shine and that's why the film is beautiful.
Let’s talk about the tone of the film. At the opening, there’s a lot of grief and isolation, and then by the end it feels very joyful and colorful, so connective. Tell me a bit about this transformation.
Z: We were coming off the pandemic. There [was] much isolation and fear and grief. So many people passed from COVID and we all share the experience of witnessing how scary it was.
But also a lot of the identities that are held at Swish are people who are naturally isolated, who naturally don't have space to be loved or seen in the ways that Swish offers, who deal with grief and isolation on a daily basis. You come to Swish and [you can] show up how you want to show up. You can cheer, you can shoot, you can drop air balls all day and we're going to celebrate you. Swish gave this beautiful opportunity and space to just be, and to be celebrated without the pressures of actually making that last shot, you know what I mean? And time after time, it just became a community.
How did you capture the tone from a filmmaking perspective?
Sai: There were so many things said in the interviews that just really struck me. We start with Ishara [talking] about fear and isolation. I remember when I was on set, it was a shot right through the heart. I knew that was in the running to start the film. There had to be an arc [of] starting in a kind of dark place, isolation, the pandemic, and the outcome of it. So I knew those were the acts in the film.
It's easy to say times are tough right now, but it's really hard to do something about it. And Swish did that. They did the hard thing — finding a problem and trying to solve it. [It’s about] showing up and just making an attempt. So much of sports is about the results, the winning and losing, and we never really cheer on the attempts. Swish is about that hope and support, being held and seen.
What do you hope people will take from this film?
Jamiece: My hope is that folks see this film and see that what they want is possible, that there are people who will see you as you are and you can show up as you are. Like I said before, we are a point in history [and] people have been creating spaces like this for many, many years. I hope ultimately that people see this film and see that they can make these spaces in their own communities. That they can show up in their own communities as their best self.
Ishara: As an athlete, I think we are so conditioned to believe that there's a pathway to playing your sport. Whether that's being on the starting five, playing in college, getting a scholarship to play in college, going off to be a professional athlete, [we’re told] there's just one path. With Swish, we paved our own pathway to a sport that we love. We are successful because we paved our own way. We're three basketball players and a tennis player, a track star over there [who said] "Let's get together and build community, build our own pathway, to be engaged in this sport with people that look like us." We're changing the game by existing.
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