For my final year project, I pitched my idea for “The Tricolour” documentary. The Tricolour follows two Irish GAA players, Sherin and Gráinne, who play for the LGFA (clubs situated in Mayo) and for TU Dublin’s Women’s Gaelic Football Team (O’Connor Cup). Filming followed the girls through their O’Connor cup games (from the Quarter Final onward) and finished just after their latest victory, winning the O’Connor cup.
This is not, however, a documentary about sport. Both Sherin and Gráinne describe from their perspective the unacceptable and often isolating experience of being a woman of colour playing a sport that predominantly upholds their white players, through the systems it’s built and its audience. The girls describe how their love and passion for the sport can be impacted by the microaggressions they experience surrounding bigoted beliefs about what really makes a GAA player and the underlying racial insinuations about who is “really” Irish.
This timeline occurs simultaneously with the Tricolour protests in Dublin, which have shown a part of Irish society that poses the threatening question of who is and who is not allowed to feel a part of Ireland. This documentary seeks to celebrate the sports prowess and humanity of two players being forced into a position of “representation” while also showing how smaller oversights in Irish clubs and organisations such as the LGFA when it comes to protecting their marginalised players, can enable the growth of bigger movements such as the Tricolour Protest.
Cast:
Gráinne Gavin
Sherin El Massry
Crew List
Director: Amara Platt
Co-Creator(s): Gráinne Gavin, Sherin El Massry
Director of Photography: Mia Rodgers
Camera Operator: Laurence Mc Loughlin
Producer: Alison Bushe
Sound Recordist: Neil Merriman
Editor: Reto Siegenthaler
Post-Sound: Neil Merriman
