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ROLLABALL

By Eddie EDWARDS

Documentary - Post-Production 2021

Filmed in and around Accra, ROLLABALL follows the Rolling Rockets, Ghana’s disabled skate soccer team, as they battle for recognition as well as for their own day-to-day survival.

- Year of production
- 2021
- Genres
- Documentary, Social issues, Sport
- Countries
- SOUTH AFRICA
- Languages
- ENGLISH, Other
- Budget
- N/A
- Duration
- 85 mn
- Director(s)
- Eddie EDWARDS
- Producer(s)
- Steven MARKOVITZ (Big World Cinema)
- Synopsis
- Rollaball will be an inspiring film that proves that physical limitations are no match for the human spirit.
  Filmed in and around Accra in the West African nation of Ghana, Rollaball follows the Rolling Rockets, Ghana’s national skate soccer team as they battle for recognition as well as for their own day-to-day survival.
  Ghana has a proud soccer heritage, with the Under 20 national team, The Satellites, current world champions and the national team, Black Stars, Africa’s Cup of Nation’s quarter finalists as well as quarter finalists at the 2010 World Cup. It is little wonder then that you will find the game played in all shapes and forms around the country.
  Some unexpected athletes play one of the most exciting and unique forms of the game. Skate soccer is a game created by disabled athletes that is every bit as skillful and antagonistic as the able-bodied version of the game. Played with bone-breaking intensity, a typical game of skate soccer involves plenty of big talking and posturing, full body collisions and players being thrown from their custom-made skateboards. Every Sunday these young polio survivors, like Rasta, Smallee and No Fear, converge on a deserted downtown taxi rank where for a few hours they can be heroes to themselves, each other and the loyal able-bodied supporters who cheer from the sidelines.
  But after the game, many of these players can only look forward to the streets to rest their weary bodies. Ostracized by society, many are forced to eke out a living begging. As they have nowhere to go, many live in makeshift tents that they put up and pull down each day. Some live this way with their wives and families, while others live alone. Come Monday they hit the streets and are a common sight, dodging traffic at the busiest and most dangerous intersections in the capital. Being run over is not an uncommon occurrence as they weave their way around the cars.
  When they do get money, some of the guys party up a storm, hanging out in bars, smoking weed and chasing women, while others do their best to support their families.
  Rolling Rockets coach and manager Albert Frimpong lives a very different life. Able-bodied and trained in the IT industry, Albert devotes his spare time and money to further the cause of the Rolling Rockets. The family has fallen on hard times since the death of his father but they have stuck together. After they’ve been to church, Albert’s sister, Alberta, as well as his mother, Vida, are a common sight on the side-lines on a Sunday.
  Rollaball offers an up-close look at Ghana’s national skate soccer team as they work towards their sporting goal. We also look at the personal stories of the harrowing and challenging lives the players deal with in their daily battle to survive.
- Partners & financing
- PUMA Creative Catalyst Award
  National Film and Video Foundation (South Africa)
  Hot Docs Blue Ice Fund
  Bertha Foundation
  Channel 4 - Britdoc
- Beginning of shooting
- Feb 01, 2012