A whole Different Ball Game
1994
A four-part series looking at nationalism through sport.
DREAM BEFORE WICKET
Cricket runs as a common thread through Indian social, economic, political and religious life. The game is played everywhere, from pavements to vast stadiums. And even the pavement cricket draws a crowd. In its cutting between the stadium and the street, the film stresses the all-pervasive relationship between the nation and its game.
DIRECTOR: Ruchir Joshi
Voortrekker Ruck
This episode exposes Rugby's role in South Africa at the time of apartheid, finding optimism for the long road ahead while addressing fears over the possibility of sporting equality in an unequal society.
Director: David Fox
CUBAN REBEL BALL
For over 30 years baseball has symbolised Cuban defiance and national pride. ‘Cuban rebel Ball’ explores the deep roots that baseball has in Cuban popular consciousness, and looks to a future where economic privations threaten the collective spirit so studiously nurtured by the state in its local and national teams.
Director: Sylvia Stevens
Brazil: A nation in football boots
Filmed just before Brazil won the world cup, 'A nation in Football Boots' takes the pulse of the country as it faces a crisis of confidence and perspective, and explores the pivotal role that soccer plays in the daily lives, mythological pasts, and future hopes of contemporary Brazilians.