Gay rugby tournament documentary gets boost from Queer Screen
NSW-based LGBTI film festival group Queer Screen donated proceeds from a recent screening of The Rugby Player, documentary about the late Mark Bingham — who inspired the gay rugby Bingham Cup tournament — to the production of a new documentary about Sydney’s hosting of the tournament this year.
Scrum, which captures this year’s Bingham Cup in August, is directed and written by Poppy Stockell (pictured above in the centre with Queer Screen members), who has also produced several independent and commercial films and won several awards including a Walkley and Best Documentary Audience Award at the Sydney Film Festival.
Stockell has also worked with the Sydney Convicts before on the award-winning feature Walk Like a Man.
When Convicts founder Andrew Purchas asked her to pitch a documentary covering the 2014 Sydney Bingham Cup, Stockell developed an approach that involved having some of the Convicts wearing Go-Pro cameras. Her documentary is set to put the audience right into the action, experiencing the line out, the tackles and the scrums.
Scrum is also expected to reveal how these men and women pushed themselves both physically and emotionally in order to feel free and belong.
The Sydney Convicts is Australia’s first gay-friendly and inclusive rugby union club that was founded in 2004.
