This moving documentary attempts to modernise a musty film narrative about LGBTQ people and sport with plenty of verve but not quite enough context
There’s overwhelming precedent in film for the separation of LGBTQ stories and those told within the world of sport – two often diametrically opposed parts of life with very little crossover. What crossover there is has often been reductive or bleak, either poking fun or revealing a dark underbelly of intolerance and players forced to remain in the closet. It makes the prospect of optimistic documentary Steelers: The World’s First Gay and Inclusive Rugby Club much more welcome – and a way to modernise a musty narrative.
Steelers is a modest film, both in production values and scope, in ways that sometimes work and sometimes don’t: the affecting small moments are often in need of a bigger picture to make them soar. It’s made by one of the London-based club’s former players,
Australian reporter Eammon Ashton-Atkinson, who is narrator, director, writer and editor, telling the story of three queer people involved with the team as they compete against other gay clubs in the Bingham Cup.