Director Jack Weatherley has signed with Believe Media for commercial representation in the U.K. and Europe. In most of his spot work, Weatherley captures cinematic performances from high-profile athletes such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Paul Pogba, Mo Farah and Paula Radcliffe. Being an ex-rugby player with Premiership team Exeter Chiefs, Weatherley understands the training, commitment and dedication it takes to be at the top of your sporting game. In his work for UEFA’s multi award-winning equality campaign, Weatherley captures local grassroots heroes as well as the world’s greatest players; he focuses on the unknown players equally to the stars–emphasizing that out on the pitch, we’re all footballers and we all deserve the same respect. The work won the Grand Prix at the Sportel sports marketing awards. In his most recent work for Facebook, Weatherley explores the physical preparation currently underway all over the world in the countdown to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The hero film “Anthem” is fast paced, energetic and transports the viewer into the training process of Olympians….
Review: Rachel Morrison Makes Feature Directorial Debut With “The Fire Inside”
"The Fire Inside," about boxer Claressa "T-Rex" Shields, is not your standard inspirational sports drama, even if it feels like it for the first half of the movie.
There's the hopeless dream, the difficult home life, the blighted community, the devoted coach, the training montages, the setbacks and, against all odds, the win. We've seen this kind of story before, you might think, and you'd be right. But then the movie pulls the rug out from under you: The victory is not the end. "The Fire Inside," directed by Rachel Morrison and written by Barry Jenkins, is as much about what happens after the win. It's not always pretty or inspirational, but it is truthful, and important.
Sports dramas can be just as cliche as fairy tales, with the gold medal and beautiful wedding presented as a happy ending. We buy into it time and time again for obvious reasons, but the idea of a happy ending at all, or even an ending, is almost exclusively for the audience. We walk away content that someone has found true love or achieved that impossible goal after all that work. For the subject, however, it's a different proposition; Life, and all its mundanities, disappointments and hardships, continues after all. And in the world of sports, that high moment often comes so young that it might be easy to look at the rest of the journey as a disappointing comedown.
Claressa Shields, played by Ryan Destiny in the film, was only 17 when she went to the 2012 London Olympics. Everything was stacked against her, including the statistics: No American woman had ever won an Olympic gold medal in the sport before. Her opponents had years on her. She was still navigating high school in Flint, Michigan, and things on the home front were volatile and lacking. Food was sometimes scarce... Read More