A feature-length documentary covering the sustained prosperity of the WNBL’s most successful franchise, the UC Canberra Capitals, is in production with two local filmmakers shooting their best shots to make it happen.
Titled Go Big, the feature-length documentary was inspired by director Lachlan Ross and producer Dylan Simpson’s combined passions for basketball and storytelling.
Both grew up cheering on the Caps and feel strongly about the value of giving women’s sport the profile and coverage it deserves – inspired by the motto “you can’t be what you can’t see”.
Raised in Canberra as aspiring basketballers, after the Cannons men’s team folded, the Caps were the big team in town, and a mighty successful one at that.
“If you wanted to see pros and how they went about it, it was a women’s team you went and watched, which I think is quite different to a lot of other cities,” Ross said.
Fast forward a decade and the once aspiring basketballers, now creative storytellers, were keen to tell the tale of Australia’s most successful women’s basketball franchise.
“We really wanted to cover women’s sport with high production value,” Simpson said. “Sport documentaries are so popular at the moment, but it’s still a dime-a-dozen with female protagonists.”
Having won nine championships since being established in 1987, the side went into the 2020 season chasing their first ever three-peat.
“They had failed to get a three-peat three times before; it felt like there was a bigger story at play,” Ross said.
Filmmakers granted ‘complete access’
Prior to filming, the pair had worked with the Caps in some capacity and had pre-existing contacts within the organisation.
Simpson worked directly on the Caps’ ‘Go Big’ branding campaign, and Ross had been engaged by the club as a freelance videographer.
The pair were able to gauge the interest of the Caps’ top brass, with an overwhelmingly positive reception to their pitch.
“They’ve given us complete access,” Simpson said. “They really understood what we wanted to achieve and appreciated the coverage.”
“Everyone’s been really supportive of the project and allowed us to get those fly-on-the-wall scenes and content you wouldn’t otherwise see.”
Documenting the Caps during a WNBL season like no other saw Ross shadow the club throughout the six-week North Queensland-based competition that began in November capturing 30 hours of footage in that time.
He was able to capture everything from the first training sessions and planning meetings through to the locker room after losing their semi-final – and everything in between.
“As a storyteller it was incredible, I’ve never had that kind of access or ability to cover a story like that,” he said.
Inspired by the narrative structure of 2020 Michael Jordan/Chicago Bulls documentary The Last Dance, Go Big follows the Caps’ 2020 season while dipping back into their history, covering pivotal moments in the franchise’s history like Carrie Graf joining in 1999, the historic million-dollar Lauren Jackson contract in 2011, and pioneering a pride jersey in 2015.
“We realised there’s such a bigger story to tell about women’s sport, but particularly the work that Carrie Graf and the Caps have done as an organisation,” Ross said.
“What’s guided their long-term success is what they’ve done off the court,” Simpson added. “They pioneered women’s sport before it was the hot topic it is today.”
Now moving into the second phase of production, the team are looking to raise $80,000 via the Documentary Australia Foundation to cover costs associated with interviewing a host of historic players and coaches, and post-production.
Looking to complete the documentary by the end of this year, they’re calling on a full-court-press from the Canberra community to make it happen.
An extensive four-hour master interview with Carrie Graf is already in the can, as are chats with Mariana Tolo and Paul Gorris before they left for the Tokyo Olympics.
Canberra, the ball is in your court! Visit gobigdocumentary.com to support the project and for more.
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