The Brief

We completed a short film for Carmarthenshire County Council as they looked to promote the history of women’s sports in Wales through the Smashing Boundaries project.

We worked with several high-profile companies on this project such as Ysgol Y Strade, Llanelli Town Council, Carmarthenshire museums, Actif Carms, Scarlets rugby and Llanelli Town AFC which allowed us to film events at venues such as Parc Y Scarlets and Stebonheath Park and use this footage for our promotional film.

Councillor Hazel Evans stated that: “smashing boundaries gives long overdue recognition to the achievements of women in Carmarthenshire’s sporting history. It’s vital that we continue to uncover and share these stories, so they become a visible part of our collective heritage. Projects like this are crucial for promoting equality in sport and encouraging young people, particularly girls, to see what’s possible”

The Process

In our short film we successfully demonstrated that the young girls that took part feel there is a sense of rebellion that exists in women’s sport and Carmarthenshire County Council are looking to bring attention to the journey that women’s sports as a whole have been on.

Our film encapsulates how girls have found sports to inspire confidence and fight back against old fashioned stereotypes about women and how sport has inspired them and increased their confidence. Many sports have been highlighted with rugby, football, netball, swimming and kickboxing all represented in our short film and what these sports meant to everyone involved.

One of the major reasons why this project was successful was that the girls involved in the film all faced behavioural challenges and we also let them shoot the film with us providing equipment and offering any help if needed. By doing this we offered them an insight into filmmaking and teaching them new skills outside of a classroom environment. This was hugely beneficial for them as the film was of high quality and superbly demonstrated the aims of the project.

By introducing the girls to filmmaking and how to do this successfully we helped successfully combine the sports and media industry and that there is a variety of ways to get involved in sports. This experience offered valuable insight that could help them form careers in the media industry.

We were also able to do segments of the short film in Welsh which was hugely beneficial for us due to our commitment to the Welsh Language in education and the general public.

The Result

The film managed how sport has impacted women in so many ways. One of the main messages that we managed to get across in this film was that there is a difference between actions and words and that despite pushback to women’s involvement in sports women now feel that sport is more of a place for them and that it doesn’t matter what other people may say.

We also felt that this was a story important to tell given the prominence of women’s sports today and to educate young girls on the barriers that have previously held women back and to stand up against discrimination that has existed for women in sports. By also referring to the sports that the girls in the film had taken up this added an additional layer of authenticity to the film that was crucial for us.