Last month, the Queen Mary Rugby team based at East London Rugby Football Club (RFC), Memorial Recreation Ground, welcomed the team at Distillery TV for a community based film about mental health issues affecting young women. The production were filming two girls try out rugby on the 5G pitch and chatting about their experience. Hearing about this fantastic opportunity, Newham Film Office, managed by The Film Office were all too happy to facilitate the shoot.
Memorial Recreation Ground is a beautiful space offering a children’s playground, floodlit football and rugby pitches and a ball games court. Next to it is the stone-walled East London RFC which has a 60-space car park facility. East London RFC based at the grounds has a fantastic community spirit and a great history of involving a wide variety of people in activities at the club.
Deborah Charles, Executive Producer from Distillery TV commented “Anxiety and mental health issues are highest than they have ever been among young women, so the film was highlighting how team sports can help support young women when faced with today’s pressures of body image and general social pressures. Our company use small not for profit shoots like this to bring the team together to upskill, so the whole project was produced by our junior team members to promote women’s rugby. The Queen Mary team train from 19:00 – 22:00, so we joined them on a freezing cold night in January. Luckily, our two novices who were there to learn about rugby and chat to the girls really mucked in and kept everyone warm with laughter at their ineptitude! It was great fun and the East London Rugby Club were incredibly accommodating”.
With the Six Nations underway, and the Rugby World Cup in Japan starting September, it’s fantastic to see an important project like this come to fruition.
