Kat Sweet’s film, If She Can Do It, to premiere this Thursday

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Stop by Saint Andrews Bar and Grill in Seattle’s Greenlake neighborhood on Thursday for the premiere of If She Can Do It, a documentary by filmmaker Mark Brent and Cascade’s very own mountain bike celebrity, Kat Sweet.

If She Can Do It was filmed this past July at the Sugar Showdown, a women’s freeride mountain bike event held at Duthie Hill Park in Issaquah, Wash.

Aimed at providing a venue for professional and amateur female freeriders to compete in a supportive environment while bringing awareness to the ever-growing women’s freeride movement, Sugar Showdown featured a two-day coaching clinic and competition involving 60 women from eight states and two countries.

Backed by Kickstarter funds and community and sponsor support, Brent and his crew of professional videographers were there to document the weekend and the days leading up to the event.

“We got so much good coverage that editing was a daunting task,” said Brent, who also produced the women-focused documentary, Awesomeland, Women Of Dirt. “With over seven hours of footage for a half-hour movie, I was able to distill the Sugar Showdown experience into a compelling story of women inspiring women to push new limits and achieve awesomeness.”

Pro coaches and competitors featured in the film include Kat Sweet, Tammy Donahugh, Gale Dahlager, Lorraine Blancher, Angi Weston, Stephanie Nychka, Cortney Knudson, Chelsey Stevens and local rider and up-and-coming talent, 12-year-old Katie Heinsen.

“The significance of this film is enormous for the women of freeride,” said Sweet. “This demographic has been largely overlooked by the bike industry for a long time, and people want to see women riding bikes, supporting and pushing each other but keeping it fun.”

The documentary screening is open to the public, and if you can’t make it down to Saint Andrews Bar and Grill, people all around the world are encouraged to watch the film premiere online at Pinkbike.com.  Both screenings will start at 6 p.m.

Sweet hopes women and men all over the world will watch the online premiere at the same time to build support for what she calls a “sisterhood of shred.”