PUBLISHED04 Jun 2024
Impact campaign for new documentary on Australian women’s football aims high
Documentary Australia is the driving force behind an inspiring social impact campaign for the Stan Original documentary Trailblazers, premiering on Stan on June 4.
In the lead-up to the 2024 Paris Olympics, Trailblazers celebrates the remarkable rise of Australian women’s football.
Trailblazers is a Stan Original documentary by Savage Films, Milestone Films and LM Films production by director/producers Maggie Miles and Maggie Eudes and producer Lucy Maclaren. Website: Trailblazersfilm.com.au
Featuring legends of Australian women’s football and current Matildas stars including inaugural captain Julie Dolan, Sam Kerr, Steph Catley, Mary Fowler, Ellie Carpenter and more, Trailblazers showcases the incredible rise of women’s football and the team’s journey to success and fight for equality. More than 11 million people watched the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup: the largest recorded viewership in Australian television history.
The impact campaign aims to inspire audiences to “Blaze a Trail” for gender equality in sports and beyond. It focuses on promoting leadership, increasing investment, and enhancing infrastructure and opportunities for women and girls at all levels of sport.
The campaign, created by Documentary Australia, is supported by major partner MECCA M-POWER (the social impact platform of beauty brand MECCA) and will be implemented in collaboration with key partners, including Professional Footballers Australia, Correct the Internet, Inspiro Health, Women Onside, and Women Sport Australia, to motivate audiences to take action.
“This campaign for Trailblazers has enormous potential to bring about change for women and girls in sports and society more broadly. It will invite audiences to blaze a trail for gender equality in sport by taking action,” said Documentary Australia’s Impact Director, Lisa Kanani.
With five main goals, the impact campaign includes an educational program for schools as well as a screening program.
The film will be shown in classrooms across the country, alongside educational resources created by Cool.org, for students in grades 5 to 10. The 15 free lesson plans, tackling themes of gender equality, media bias, and representation, are available from June 24. Educators can sign up at www.trailblazersfilm.com.au/education
There will also be a screening program in community sports clubs, elite sporting organisations, and sports-related tertiary education courses. This program will play a role in ensuring the conversation on gender equality in sport continues and progresses further.
Goals of the impact campaign are to:
- Celebrate and acknowledge the legacy of the Australian women’s football team and grow the women’s football movement in Australia.
- Educate and drive action for gender equality, diversity, and inclusion in sports.
- Support increased representation of women in sports leadership and decision-making.
- Support partners and campaigns working for equal investment, conditions, and opportunities.
- Encourage viewing, engagement, and participation in women’s sport and increase the visibility and representation of women’s sport in the media.
“The rise of women’s football mirrors the progress of gender equality across society. However, there is still a long way to go to achieve gender equality, both in sport and broader society. At a community level, girls are participating in sports at significantly lower levels than boys. At the elite level, women receive unequal support, pay and media coverage. Women are also underrepresented in leadership positions at all levels of sport,” added Kanani.