THREE BOYS DREAMING
From urban communities to remote desert outposts, Australia’s national game is both an obsession and a tantalising escape route from boredom and poverty for many indigenous teenagers. To run onto the field as an AFL player is to achieve success and respect in both black and white Australia.
Three Boys Dreaming begins with a unique football camp in September 2005
that saw 48 of the best young indigenous footballers from around the country
brought together in Melbourne. The camp provided an opportunity to improve
their skills, to hear the wisdom of Cathy Freeman and Michael Long –
and to play at the MCG.
Over the next four years the lives of five of these boys - from WA,
Tasmania and NSW - are closely followed as they chase their common dream.
But the road to football stardom is difficult. Many broader social issues
resonate in an intimate, emotional drama as the film chronicles the boys’
success and setbacks not just on the field, but in school, at home, and
finally, in a white dominated society. For the barriers that have disappeared
on the field are still heavily entrenched off it.
Three Boys Dreaming celebrates the dogged and aspirational spirit of Aboriginal Australians. It is a universal story, but also uniquely Australian.
© 2007-09 Cordell Jigsaw Productions