Hard as Puck

There simply are not enough disabled stories being shown in Australia.

Stories featuring main characters with a disability make up 6.6% of Australian screens, yet the disability community make up 18% of the Australian population.

This lack of representation negatively affects those with disabilities and has a trickle-down effect to every area of Australian society. Those with disabilities are ‘othered’ and or deemed less capable than those from the non-disabled population. This can be seen clearly in the lack of funding and opportunities with only 5.35% of Australian sports funding going to Para-sports.

The film seeks to empower the Disability community through the simple act of seeing themselves. If they can see it, they can be it.

Hard as Puck is a catalyst for better representation. By showing the disability community onscreen, and by hiring the disability community behind the camera, we aim to normalise the often ‘othered’ community. For those members of the disability community seeing themselves represented front and centre, we hope that it will empower them to chase their dreams no matter what it is they want to do.

The documentary will also showcase this rarely-seen sport to Australians. Given our natural landscapes, Australians aren’t exposed to these winter sports meaning clubs and players have an extremely difficult time getting funding. By shining a spotlight on this incredible sport, we hope to raise its profile to a point where the league and individual players can access the funding they need to thrive.

By supporting this documentary, you’ll help achieve a number of outcomes.
– You’ll empower the disability community to strive for greatness no matter what their disability is.
– You’ll create more funding and opportunities for Para-athletes and filmmakers from the disability community.
– You’ll help change people’s perceptions of those in the disability community and their perceived abilities.
– Through showcasing incredible achievements, you’ll help bring the community together in their love of sport.
– You’ll also help address issues of representation in the disability community.

The majority of the filmmaking team comes from the disabled community. They are compelled to tell this unknown story of disabled characters and para-sport because it’s yet to be represented proportionately to our society on screens.

The producing team knows these struggles all too well as they have seen and experienced firsthand the challenges that members of the disabled community face daily. Chanel Bowen lives with an invisible disability and feels stuck between being “too disabled for the non-disabled community”, and “not disabled enough for the disabled community”. A demoralising experience that she’s committed to shining a light on.

Director Isaac Elliot is a proud disabled man, giving him incredible insight into our participants’ journies and positioning him as the perfect Director for this story.

If you are in a position to help, please donate generously. Your support will help achieve better representation, funding, work and sporting opportunities for the disability community.

Other ways you can help include donating money to Para-Ice Hockey Australia.

By doing this, athletes can access travel, equipment, training and the necessary opportunities needed to excel at the sport without having to front the costs and put themselves at further disadvantage.

Every bit helps, so please give generously.