AMERICAN MOVIE SHINE LIGHT ON WELSH SPORT
After the success of hit Netflix sports documentary “The Last Dance” sports addicts have all been waiting for another “access all areas” sports doc’ to get us through these last few weeks of lockdown before the re-opening of cinemas and pubs…
Step forward “Transatlantic Storytelling”; a brand new American made, feature length sports documentary, focusing on some of Wales’ most exciting young athletes, and exploring the role of sport in our country and how it helps shape our culture and define our identity.
The ground breaking film, made in partnership with the Sport Broadcast students from Cardiff Metropolitan University, is told through a selection of exclusive, powerful and personal stories of 7 elite Welsh sports men and women, all hailing from Cardiff’s Cyncoed Campus.
Who are the athletes?
Among those storylines the film tries to keep up with the fastest man in Wales, sprinter Sam Gordon, as he attempts to become the fastest man in the world. Team GB Cross Country runner Jenny Nesbitt says running saved her life, and this film shows how after serious illness and injury, she got her mind, body and career back on track.
There’s also an emotional story following the student sportsman, Will Godwin, a tri-athlete, who, in the pursuit of sporting perfection, almost died, TWICE. Once on a bike, once on a rowing machine. The second time, it was quick thinking fellow students who brought him back to life. Then there’s the International rugby player who got so badly injured he had to retire from the sport he loved.
Fast forward two years and he is back, but this time as a Para-athlete. Harrison Walsh has already broken the world shot put record for his category and now he’s focused on grabbing gold at the Tokyo 2021 Paralympics. Wales’ star netballer Lydia Hitchings and the county cricketer Sam Pearce, both final year students on the verge of professional careers tell tales of trying to strike that elusive balance of study alongside the pressures of elite sport.
And finally, the former Welsh football International player-turned university lecturer- turned football coach Dr. Christian Edwards reflects on an eventful year when his team of students (Cardiff Met FC) won the Welsh MG Cup and made it into the continent’s top football competition, the Europa Cup.
A year when Edwards left his players in shock when he collapsed on the training ground just before Christmas with a suspected heart attack and was told he might never be able to stand on the touchline again.
Inspire and Engage
This film will move and inspire you in equal measures. It will remind you of why we love sport in Wales and how we consistently punch above our weight on the international stage.
All of the seven stories in the film focus on Cardiff Met University athletes and coaches, further confirming the institution’s reputation as the beating heart of Welsh sport and a conveyor belt for sporting success ever since Olympian Lynn Davies and Lion Gareth Edwards were students there back in the 1960s.
This is Wales
The film also features some sumptuously stunning scenics of Wales’s mountains, castles, cathedrals, cliffs and coastlines, captured earlier this year in the month before the nation went into lockdown. Natural sounds of our rivers and waterfalls help provide the documentary with a fresh and engaging soundtrack.
Narrated by former BBC broadcaster Steff Garrero, the film is made for an American audience but will go down well across Wales where we don’t mind finding an excuse to shine a light on our sporting heroes. At a time when so much of the world feels divided, it’s a nice to be reminded that we can be united by a shared love of sport and storytelling.
Ball State Sports Link, in partnership with Cardiff Met Sport Broadcast, will present its feature-length documentary, Transatlantic Storytelling 2020, with a world digital premiere today.
For viewers in the United Kingdom, the debut will be in primetime at 8 p.m.
www.transatlanticstorytelling.com
Words: Jasper Haze
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