It’s 1972, and Fred Dobbs is preparing for the Schoolboy Boxing Championships. His trainer, who also happens to be his father, thinks he’s the next great white hope. Two years of training have led up to this climatic night. There’s just one problem.
Fred can’t box.
In the same year Gustavo White, a Cuban boxing legend prepares for the biggest fight of his life at the Munich Olympics. Every last second of his 25 years earth have been leading up to this challenge – he is widely tipped to take gold .
He doesn’t.
Adrift and alone, the two men’s paths cross almost 40 years later. Fred is an executive at a debt recovery firm who's on his way out; his aggressive younger boss thinks he’s past it and demotes him to the call centre. Gustavo has turned his back on boxing – far from home, with his boxing club bankrupt and repossessed, he scratches a living as a gardener.
Fred is forced to participate in a work yuppie boxing event, Gus agrees to train him and both men are thrown back into the boxing fray for what will be the most important fight of their lives.
The Crash Reel tells the story of a sport and the risks that athletes face in reaching the pinnacle of their profession. This is Kevin Pearce’s story, a celebrated snowboarder who sustained a brain injury in a trick gone wrong and who now aims, against all the odds, to get back on the snow.
Set in 1984, Theatre of Dreams is a funny and touching fictional tale about the legendary Manchester United football manager Sir Matt Busby, who helps a wayward boy fulfill his dream. An act of petty crime by 11 year-old Georgie becomes a collision of fate as Sir Matt tracks him down, only to discover that the boy is an extraordinarily gifted footballer and captain of a team of unruly talents. Having lived with football all his life and survived the tragic 1958 Munich plane disaster, in which eight of his young players were killed, Sir Matt is still committed to continue his work of 'training lads for life'. So begins a thrilling adventure as Sir Matt comes out of retirement to transform a young group of scallywags into a dream team.
The film tells the story of the golden age of grand prix motor racing when the cars were sleek, fast and dangerous; a time when the drivers became rock stars and money poured into the sport from television and sponsoring deals. 1960s through the 1970s Formula One witnessed a staggering number of deaths on the track as the circuit became a playground for daredevils and playboys. Those who survived began a revolution that saved countless lives and fought for innovation in safety and engineering that launched Formula One in the modern era.
Pouters Is a modern day story of undying commitment, rivalry, family and friendship all interwoven by an underground and idiosyncratic Scottish sport. Rab and Danny, rivals for over 25 years and with pride being the stakes, battle it out on the wing to become the Cranhill reigning Doo Fleein champion.
In Search of Silent Landscapes follows Britain’s top female ultra-distance runner, Sharon Gayter. We learn of her troubled childhood, desire for escape and the hours of pain and solitude that redeemed her.
The film is a portrait of a complex and remarkable woman and a meditation on time, devotion and silence.
Filmed over four years, Personal Best follows up-and-coming British sprinters on their journey from the grassroots of athletics to the international stage. The film is both a gripping portrait of the athletes in training and competition, and a deeply personal account of their lives unfolding – revealing victory, defeat, agony, ecstasy and the simple trials of growing up. On the eve of the 2012 Olympics, this film tells the stories of Britain’s young sprinters as they strive towards their dreams. This is an inspiring but genuine portrait of Britain’s youth and a penetrating study of the art of sprinting, peeling back the layers so we can finally understand everything it means to them as they are on the start-line waiting for the gun to fire.
Desperate not to be like his father, a young boxer must fight everything he knows to stop history repeating.
Clayton Murdoch carries a terrible darkness inside him: as a boy he was exposed by his brutal father to violence, domestic abuse, gang culture and ultimately murder. Years later and with his father now in prison, Clayton struggles to overcome his past. In a city where every day there is a constant threat of violence and death, he keeps his sanity by channelling his aggression into boxing, the one part of his life where he feels powerful, in control, contained.
However, when the violence that surrounds him starts to destroy his own family, Clayton’s inner darkness is unleashed. And now, to gain vengeance against those who have taken his loved ones, he must ask the one man he fears the most for help: his father. With everything around him falling apart and the full shocking fury in him let loose, Clayton must look death in the face and find out who is the man inside.
Pensioners from across the planet compete in the over-80s World Table Tennis Championships in Inner Mongolia. The film weaves a competition narrative with candid portraits of life back home that explore the hope, regret and immediacy of growing old.
8 players with 703 years between them guide us through the extraordinary world of Veteran sports. 81-year old Englishman Terry, recovering from life-threatening cancer, battles to retain his gold medal title. At 99, Australian legend Dorothy de Low creates a sensation as the oldest competitor at the Championships. German newcomer Inge, aged 89, has fought her way out of a dementia ward using the power of ping pong. This film is as much about the tenacity of the human spirit as it is a meditation on mortality.
Right now 1 in 6 people on the planet are over the age of 60. By 2030 that figure will be 1 in every 4. From the outset the film challenges perceptions of what it is to grow old. With humour and sensitivity it engages with the issues we all face in an ageing global population.
An up-beat comic extravaganza involving the family of
a football obsessed grandfather, a women's fitness centre manager and
mother, a dodgy car dealer and twin daughters lifeguards.
This short film tells the story of Ash, a mixed-race girl from Old Trafford, Manchester, UK. On a youth referral scheme, we see Ash travel to the iconic Salford Lads Club where she takes up boxing as a way of dealing with her troubled past. By portraying Ash’s experience of the sport, the film highlights how the boxing ring can be a neutral space where race and neighborhood politics are left outside.
The film looks at not only Ash’s own experience of racism, but also the preconceptions she and others hold about other people and places.
Clench demonstrates how boxing can become the ultimate visual tool for communication between generations, highlighting that every person has a story to tell regardless of how they look.
