New to DVD this week:
SCRUM
Director:
Poppy Stockell
Premiere:
Sheffield 2015
Select Festivals:
New Orleans, Montreal World, Frameline, Outfest, NewFest, LGBT fests in Sydney, Glasgow, Cardiff, Melbourne, and Copenhagen
About:
A portrait of a gay Aussie rugby team.
Stockell’s subjects are the Sydney Convicts, and specifically three players hoping to make the cut to compete in the annual Bingham Cup tournament, which draws participants from 15 countries. Overly artsy profiles of Aki, Pearse, and Brennan reveal familiar themes of exclusion and bullying of gay athletes in their youth and within mainstream sports teams, and the opportunity provided by gay leagues for players to find acceptance and camaraderie. Running at only about an hour, the well-intentioned doc feels underdeveloped, however, assuming audiences will have familiarity with rugby and its gameplay, as well as with the gay rugby circuit, making this most appropriate for an insider LGBT audience rather than a general one.
what (not) to doc 