Welcome to The DocArena Podcast in association with Film Ireland. My name is Ross Whitaker and every fortnight, I want to dig deeply into the motivations of documentary filmmakers – how do they choose their subject material and what approaches and strategies do they employ to fund, craft and distribute their work…
In this episode of The DocArena Podcast, Ross Whitaker talks to Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine about their documentary Copa 71.
It is August 1971. Football teams from England, Argentina, Mexico, France, Denmark and Italy are gathering at Mexico City’s sun-drenched Azteca Stadium. The scale of the tournament is monumental: lavish sponsorship, extensive TV coverage, merchandise on every street corner and crowds of over 100,000 hollering fans turn this historic stadium into ‘a cauldron of noise and heat’ match after match. A fawning media treat the players like rock stars. The atmosphere is reminiscent of the greatest moments in international footballing history.
But this is a tournament unlike anything that’s happened before. The players on the pitch are all women. And it’s likely you’ve never even heard of it. This is Copa 71, the unofficial Women’s World Cup. Dismissed by both FIFA and domestic football associations around the world, this event has been entirely written out of history. Until now.
Copa 71 is in cinemas from 8th March 2024
Rachel Ramsay & James Erskine
Rachel and James have worked together across a raft of sports features and series, including the 2020 Humanitas Prize winning THIS IS FOOTBALL; LE MANS: RACING IS EVERYTHING; SACHIN: A BILLION DREAMS and THE END OF THE STORM. With New Black Films, James has also directed BILLIE, THE ICE KING and BATTLE OF THE SEXES.
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Ross Whitaker is a documentary filmmaker (Katie, The Boys in Green, Between Land and Sea) and is a former editor of Film Ireland Magazine and programmer of the IFI Dublin Documentary Film Festival @RossWhitakerTV
Podcast music composed by michaelflemingmusic.com
