Directed by Rachel Ramsey and James Erskine, Copa 71 opened the Documentary section of Toronto International Film Festival 2023. The duo had already worked together in 2020 with Liverpool FC: The End of The Storm, a documentary focusing on the triumphal 2019/2020 season of the Liverpool Football Club’s Premiers’ League. With their 2023 work, they decided to dwell in the past, and bring to the surface a story “that has to be seen to be believed”.
Despite what people currently think, the first Women’s Football World Cup was not the one held in China in 1991, but it dates back to twenty years before. Only there is no mention of this event in the official history, and the footage has been hidden for 50 years. Copa 71 tells the story of this unbelievable sporting event, whose final match was the most attended in the history of women’s sports, but which did not ever receive official recognition. It took place in Mexico City in 1971. Opposed by FIFA, which threatened to ban the Mexico Football Organisation if they used its provincial stadiums, the event was held in the majestic and huge Azteca Stadium, with the opposite result of gathering much more attention than expected. In fact, in order to fill the thousands and thousands of seats, an incredible promotion campaign through radio and newspaper was carried forth, with the result that the fuss around the matches was unseen (even though a sexist approach could barely be avoided: “Women who play soccer are not muscular monstrosities but generally pretty girls”).
This makes it harder to believe that such a thing could be simply erased from the collective memory.
The topic of gender marginalization in sports has just been addressed in the Venice International Film Festival with the film Life Is Not A Competition But I’m Winning It. Directed by Julia Fuhr Mann and through a collective of queer athletes, the documentary explores the demotion of women in the running categories and the delicate topic of gender, hormones and bodies within the Olympic competition; a field where prejudices related to sexuality are yet to be swept away. These two films in a way speak to each other, as they talk about the present through overlooking the past. Both films dig up the history behind current sports collective imagery, the road travelled so far and the one that is still yet to be travelled in order to reach a true gender equality. That is why the example of the protagonist of Copa 71 is so important nowadays.
The women who played in the Mexican pitch in ’71 – sponsored by Martini Rossi – were true pioneers which paved the way to a whole new perception of women football, the history of which is explained in this documentary by the historian David Goldblatt. Contrary to what one may think, from the 19th century there was a real energy for women football and many clubs in England, until many doctors started publicizing articles in famous papers claiming the dangers of football for female health, especially for their ovaries. Unscientific comments that nonetheless would stick for years to come (“There is a difference in the bodies of men and women, the first is breast and I think it’s quite dangerous”). A lot of European football associations followed the example of the English Football Association, as in 1921 it forbad its members to let women use their facilities, to the point that in Italy and Brazil it became a criminal offense for women to play football. It kept playing overall, but it became almost invisible.
Until during the ‘60s and ‘70s with the feminist movement, women football became a thing again: “perhaps it was a political act”. And yet still women had to fight for their recognition.
The film uses the official footage from the matches in summer ’71, where Argentina, France, Italy, Mexico, Denmark and England competed against each other with the result of the victory of Denmark against Mexico in the final. But that’s not the most interesting part. The directors give a very personal touch to this story, bringing to light the stories of some of its protagonists nowadays. The players are interviewed as they tell the story of their childhood, how they approached football, how they overcame prejudice when they were not allowed to play, and how they lived their dreams in front of 100.000 spectators.
But the team who played were totally forgotten. The people in charge of publications and the FIFA association were all men, still clinging to the idea that football is a sport to celebrate the value of masculine virility.
Even thanks to the fights of the women of the Copa ’71, the perception of women football has changed dramatically. Without them, the official Female World Cup in 1991 may not have happened, such as the Olympic in 1996. That is why having a documentary such as this one premiering in one of the leading International Film Festivals is such a fundamental act nowadays.
Besides its content, the style of the film is catchy, mixing official footage, interviews, advertising, personal childhood pictures, videos and old interviews of the protagonists with visual material from the feminist movement from the ‘70s in a pop-like manner, sometimes using solutions such as split screen which gives a more enjoyable rhythm to the opera.
For these several reasons, the work of Rachel Ramsey and James Erskine must definitely be watched.
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