Tuesday 23 January at 9.00 pm
Thursday 25 January at 7.00pm

Directed by Michael Cordell
Documentary
Duration: 86 min Certificate TBA

Selected Awards
1997: Australian Film Institute Awards Best Documenta

The 1996 football season is about to begin. The people of Footscray are battlers and so is their football team. The mighty bulldogs haven't won a premiership since 1954. The hopes and aspirations of a whole tribe are resting on the broad shoulders of the `Doggies'. This documentary follows the Footscray Football Club through the football season, from the boardroom to the change-room.

"The self-styled "battlers" of Australian football, the Bulldogs start the year with several matches in which they're roundly defeated. Cordell takes his camera into the dressing rooms, training areas and board rooms as he follows the fortunes of these tenacious players and their supporters during what proves to be a terrible year. There's a change of coach, injuries, illness and heavy financial pressures.

Cordell manages to shape this material into a suspenseful and intriguing saga that should entertain even non-fans. He succeeds in humanizing the players and the people around them so that even the uncommitted viewer gets wrapped up in the Bulldogs' struggle for the elusive football crown.

A major factor in the film's success is the concentration on two of the Dogs' most loyal and fanatical supporters, Pat and Jenny Hodgson, a mother and daughter who never miss a match. Cordell makes the phenomenon of the public's obsession with football, and the intense identification with a favored team, understandable and even logical.

Apart from the well-filmed action scenes on the playing field, a highlight is a fundraising evening at a nightclub where team members wind up doing a "full monty" in front of excited female fans. But there is no happy ending for the Bulldogs, as pic's closing titles contain follow-up info about some of the key characters. "

The Hollywood  Reporter