Fighters Disability Equality Documentary Film

Interview with Jack Tompkins, Director of Fighters

How did you get into film?

Making videos had always been something I did for fun. During my time studying Sports Management at university I started taking it more seriously and was fortunate to land a junior video producer job at a London Sports Agency upon graduating.

Are you self-taught or have you studied to become a film director?

I’m largely self taught but have been very lucky to learn from a lot of incredibly talented people in the industry. My first boss was a former Sky Sports producer who really got me up to speed with the requirements of professional video production and during my freelance days, I assisted several of the UK’s top event videographers (Pete James and Ben Marlow in particular) who very kindly took me under their wing and shared their decades of knowledge and expertise with me. I very luckily get to work alongside Ben Marlow every day as we now run our production company together and Ben’s passion for continually improving his craft is something I very much admire and try to replicate.

What drew you to making films in the documentary style genre?

Working in documentary is something that happened quite naturally and through many years covering sports events it was a very natural progression. It wasn’t until a good friend, Cazz Lander, asked me to make a short documentary about her world-recording-breaking team Ocean Row that I really made my first official documentary. We really enjoyed the documentary-making process and over the last five years have dedicated a large part of our time to making sports documentaries that explore social issues.

Documentary is also a very challenging style of filmmaking and we love trying to tell impactful stories with beautiful cinematic imagery. You’re often working in fast-paced environments where you can’t go back and re-do anything and you also can’t script the outcome of events or dialogue from your characters, there’s a real satisfaction when all of these things come together to tell a powerful story.

What influences your art/films?

I’m sure like most documentary filmmakers Greg Whiteley’s work has been a huge influence for me. Last Chance U Basketball was my first introduction to his work and instantly fell in love with his style of storytelling, particularly the authenticity and candour of his character’s on their journeys throughout his films. To me, Greg is the one who’s really pioneering the sports documentary genre and as he’s moved from lesser-known stories in college sports through to major sports brands such as the Dallas Cowboys, it’s been incredible to see how he’s kept his signature authentic style of storytelling in the world of mainstream sport whilst continuing to break new ground in the documentary space. Especially getting cameras into places they’ve never been before while still bringing in high-production value elements of lighting and grip. If you’ve seen the Dallas Cowboys series on Netflix, the scene at home with Anna Kate and Caroline in bed as they chat before going to sleep was a really special piece of filmmaking.

Not every shot of a documentary is going to be like that, but Greg has pushed us all as documentary makers to be better at our craft and think of how we can do things differently and make more interesting films for our viewers. His previous series ‘Wrestlers’ really embodies this, interviews with subjects in spray tanning booths and massage tables not only give us insight into the character’s lives and stories but also do it in a way that’s something that an audience will never have seen before.

Recently I’ve also really gotten into the work of Jean-Luc Godard, especially the films he made during the 60’s French New Wave period, things like ‘Breathless’, ‘Vivre Sa Vie’ and ‘Pierrot le Fou’ and how he completely goes against all the standard filmmaking rules and techniques that were created in film noir in the 40s and 50s in Hollywood in such a unique, brazen and unapologetic style. Going forward I would really love to bring Godard’s approach into our documentary work and aim to tell our subject’s stories in ways that stand out.

How do you see documentaries having an impact on society?

Documentaries are really special because they are stories that are really happening in our world, fiction films can have a powerful impact too but docs tell a story about the world we all share. To see the world through someone else’s point of view is a really powerful thing and making ‘Fighters’ has had a massive impact on me personally. I’d been very luckily to connect with fellow Director and Disability Equality advocate Michael Grimmett and talk many times about his lived experience, but it wasn’t until we actually started going out into the world and documenting his daily experience that you truly start to realise the everyday fight that many disabled people have simply to do the things that non-disabled people take for granted, even being able to go down the street, attend an event or use a public bathroom. There’s real power in seeing these moments on screen and they can communicate an understanding of a complex subject matter very quickly.

What role as a Director do you believe you have when telling other people’s stories?

Directing ‘Fighters’ with Michael Grimmett was a really special experience and in many ways, my job was to replicate my journey of learning about disability equality from Michael and all our contributors when making the film so that the audience could have the same experience watching the documentary. It’s a point that Michael very eloquently explains early on in the film, but disabled people have long been segregated from non-disabled people in society and therefore there’s this fear or apprehension as a non-disabled person to engage with a disabled person, often because of the fear of doing something wrong.

All our contributors in Fighters were so generous to welcome me into their lives and share their stories with me and my role in this production was really to listen and learn while I spent time with them documenting their lives and try to tell their story in the most authentic way possible.

What drew you to the Fighter’s story?

Fighters is the story of those fighting for disability equality in society and our story is told through the world of adaptive and inclusive boxing. Our protagonist is Matt Edwards, an amputee boxer who dreams of going professional, but because of his prosthetic leg he is repeatedly denied an assessment for an amateur license, the first step towards achieving his goal. Matt’s treatment within boxing parallels the ableism that disabled people encounter daily in everyday life. It was Matt’s vision and tenacity to achieve his dream that really hooked us into the project. Matt’s energy and passion are absolutely infectious, his constant positivity in the face of adversity makes you instantly root for him and we wanted to get behind him and support his journey.

We then met one of Matt’s key supporters Chris McEwen, a phenomenal boxing coach who is doing pioneering work in the inclusive boxing space. Matt, Chris and everyone in the Fighters documentary is working towards the same goal of disability equality in society, but to see Chris’ work firsthand as he creates the opportunity for young disabled people to be fully included in physical activity, many of them for the first time in their lives, was such an exciting prospect. Spending the day with Chris as he travelled across Wales teaching inclusive boxing at schools, colleges and his own boxing club, Pembroke Dock, made you instantly realise the importance of his work and again something that needed to be documented and shared.