Footy film confronts gender stereotypes

A FREE screening of a thought-provoking documentary challenging gender roles and stereotypes through the lens of a country football team is coming to Bendigo Tennis Centre.

Equal the Contest, which won Best First Feature Documentary award at the 2023 Melbourne Queer Film Festival, centres around the Mt Alexander Falcons Football Club and its fight for inclusion and gender diversity.

Writer and filmmaker Mitch Nivalis, who largely self-funded the film, said while at the surface it might look like a sports doco, it’s actually a story about belonging and finding community.

“It’s about overcoming all of those barriers that exist mostly for women and gender diverse people who are continually told certain spaces aren’t for them,” they said.

“It’s about what happens when you create spaces specifically for women and gender diverse people and see how we can thrive in them.”

Since its premiere in June last year, they said the response to the film had been “phenomenal.”

“I knew it would resonate with people but I didn’t realise just how deeply it would,” they said.

“The experiences that we’ve had within our football club and within ourselves trying to learn how to play this game that has been denied to us for so long, are really things that all women and gender diverse people have experienced across the board in all different areas of their lives.”

Equal The Contest screens at Bendigo Tennis Centre in Nolan Street on Wednesday 11 September. Book tickets on the Humanitix website.