Girls On Film
Mar. 6th, 2026 09:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eiffel_71Went up to Northampton on Wednesday for the screening of The Corinthians : We Were The Champions. This film is about the Manchester Corinthians women’s football team, who formed in 1949 - right in the middle of the FA’s 50-year ban on women playing on affiliated grounds - and kept going through to the 1980s, and were phenomenally successful, winning an overwhelming majority of their games played, including triumphs in two international tournaments abroad.
I wanted to see this film, not just because it was about a successful women’s football team, but because, apart from Gail Newsham’s magisterial book chronicling the Dick, Kerr Ladies, it was the first time anyone had made a concerted effort to tell a story of women’s football in England during the FA ban years, and because I’d made a contribution to the crowdfunder that made the film possible.
I’d let my friend Kathy, who lives in Northampton, know that I was coming, and she’d said she might be there.
The cinema, the Northampton Filmhouse, was a fringe venue, showing this film as part of the Northampton Film Festival, so there was a compact intimate feel with friendly front of house and bar staff. Screen 2, where the film was showing, was in a building off to the side of the main house. I took a seat with plenty of time to spare, and periodically scanned the audience for Kathy. I finally spotted her a few minutes before the start, and went over to her. We hugged and kissed and she said we’d chat at the end.
The film was fascinating. Ten surviving players took turns being shown on screen recalling events from the team’s playing days, from their being formed by their tireless manager Percy Ashley, through playing their matches on Fog Lane Park in Didsbury and having to wash in the duck pond, to their exploits playing matches all over Continental Europe and in South America. Much of their achievements were depicted in cartoon strip form, inspired by the old sports comics like Tiger, but there were actually some pieces of black and white footage of some of their games. Strikingly, while the football establishment here in England were reported as having taken the view that the team (and all women’s football) should be dismissed, ridiculed or ignored, the players recalled that much of the general public’s reaction to them was positive - while abroad, they got to play in grounds including the homes of Juventus and Sporting Lisbon, played to packed stadiums, and were treated like celebrities by the local populace.
Helen, the director, did an interesting Q&A session at the end. She said how Channel 4 and Channel 5 had both turned down her film proposal, thinking people wouldn’t be interested in a women’s football film. At the end of the session I went over to Kathy and her friend, and we all talked as we meandered to the foyer. She said she’d be at the Lionesses match in Nottingham at the weekend and we agreed to meet there.
Out in the foyer Helen was standing at a table selling tote bags and badges bearing the film’s logo. She was delighted when I told her I’d contributed to the crowdfunder and that I’d travelled from near Portsmouth. She insisted on giving me a complimentary bag and badge. I wished her luck with getting the film screened nationwide, and she asked whether I knew any cinemas round my way that might be interested. I mentioned the one in Southampton that showed Copa 71 two years ago and she said she might try them. Fingers crossed.
Back home yesterday, then today I travelled up to Nottingham for tomorrow’s Lionesses game.
I wanted to see this film, not just because it was about a successful women’s football team, but because, apart from Gail Newsham’s magisterial book chronicling the Dick, Kerr Ladies, it was the first time anyone had made a concerted effort to tell a story of women’s football in England during the FA ban years, and because I’d made a contribution to the crowdfunder that made the film possible.
I’d let my friend Kathy, who lives in Northampton, know that I was coming, and she’d said she might be there.
The cinema, the Northampton Filmhouse, was a fringe venue, showing this film as part of the Northampton Film Festival, so there was a compact intimate feel with friendly front of house and bar staff. Screen 2, where the film was showing, was in a building off to the side of the main house. I took a seat with plenty of time to spare, and periodically scanned the audience for Kathy. I finally spotted her a few minutes before the start, and went over to her. We hugged and kissed and she said we’d chat at the end.
The film was fascinating. Ten surviving players took turns being shown on screen recalling events from the team’s playing days, from their being formed by their tireless manager Percy Ashley, through playing their matches on Fog Lane Park in Didsbury and having to wash in the duck pond, to their exploits playing matches all over Continental Europe and in South America. Much of their achievements were depicted in cartoon strip form, inspired by the old sports comics like Tiger, but there were actually some pieces of black and white footage of some of their games. Strikingly, while the football establishment here in England were reported as having taken the view that the team (and all women’s football) should be dismissed, ridiculed or ignored, the players recalled that much of the general public’s reaction to them was positive - while abroad, they got to play in grounds including the homes of Juventus and Sporting Lisbon, played to packed stadiums, and were treated like celebrities by the local populace.
Helen, the director, did an interesting Q&A session at the end. She said how Channel 4 and Channel 5 had both turned down her film proposal, thinking people wouldn’t be interested in a women’s football film. At the end of the session I went over to Kathy and her friend, and we all talked as we meandered to the foyer. She said she’d be at the Lionesses match in Nottingham at the weekend and we agreed to meet there.
Out in the foyer Helen was standing at a table selling tote bags and badges bearing the film’s logo. She was delighted when I told her I’d contributed to the crowdfunder and that I’d travelled from near Portsmouth. She insisted on giving me a complimentary bag and badge. I wished her luck with getting the film screened nationwide, and she asked whether I knew any cinemas round my way that might be interested. I mentioned the one in Southampton that showed Copa 71 two years ago and she said she might try them. Fingers crossed.
Back home yesterday, then today I travelled up to Nottingham for tomorrow’s Lionesses game.
