The Final Quarter
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''The Final Quarter'' is a 2019 Australian
documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
, directed by Ian Darling and produced by Shark Island Productions, about the final stages of the
Australian football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...
career of
Adam Goodes Adam Roy Goodes (born 8 January 1980) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL). Goodes holds an elite place in VFL/AFL history as a dual Brownlow Medallist, d ...
, during which he was the target of repeated booing by opposition fans.


Background

Goodes, an
Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...
, was drafted by the
Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a Austral ...
in the
1997 AFL Draft The 1997 AFL Draft was held at the conclusion of the 1997 Australian Football League (AFL) season. A Pre-season Draft and the second Rookie Draft were held prior to the 1998 season. It is considered to have been one of the most successful draf ...
and went on to have a successful career with the Swans, featuring in their
2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...
and
2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...
premiership teams and being awarded a number of accolades for his performances including the
AFL Rising Star The AFL Rising Star is an Australian rules football award presented annually to the player adjudged the best young player in the Australian Football League (AFL) for the year. It was first presented in the 1993 season, and was won by Nathan Bu ...
award in
1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...
, the
Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as Charlie), is awarded to the best and fairest player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by the f ...
(2003 and 2006), the Bob Skilton Medal (2003, 2006 and 2011), and All Australian selection (2003, 2006, 2009 and 2011). In 2014 he was named
Australian of the Year The Australian of the Year is a national award conferred on an Australian citizen by the National Australia Day Council, a not-for-profit Australian Government-owned social enterprise. Similar awards are also conferred at the state and territor ...
in recognition of his community work supporting
Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...
youth, the efforts of the Go Foundation (co-founded with his Sydney Swans teammate
Michael O'Loughlin Michael Kevin O'Loughlin (born 20 February 1977) is a former professional Australian rules footballer, who played his entire Australian Football League career with the Sydney Swans. O'Loughlin was named a member of the Indigenous Team of the ...
), and his efforts to combat racism. On 24 May 2013, during the AFL's annual Indigenous Round (the Sir Doug Nicholls Round), a 13-year-old Collingwood supporter called Goodes an "
ape Apes (collectively Hominoidea ) are a superfamily of Old World simians native to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (though they were more widespread in Africa, most of Asia, and Europe in prehistory, and counting humans are found global ...
". Upon hearing the abuse, Goodes pointed the girl out to security, who ejected her from the stadium. Goodes was deeply affected by the incident, but said repeatedly that the girl should not be blamed; the environment that she grew up in had shaped her response. The girl phoned to apologise, saying that she hadn't realised the impact of her words. Over the following years, and particularly in 2015, Goodes was repeatedly and loudly
booed Booing is an act of publicly showing displeasure for someone or something, such as an entertainer or an athlete, by loudly yelling "Boo!" and sustaining the "oo" sound by holding it out. It may be accompanied by hand gestures such as the thumbs ...
by opposition fans at most matches. The motivation for, and acceptability of, the booing generated wide public debate, which dominated media coverage from both sports and political commentators for weeks at a time. During a match against in May 2015, again during the Indigenous Round, Goodes celebrated a goal by performing an Aboriginal war dance, in which he mimed throwing a spear in the direction of the Carlton cheer squad. Goodes said after the incident that the dance was based on one he learned from under-16s Indigenous team the Flying Boomerangs, and that it was intended as an expression of Indigenous pride during Indigenous Round, not as a means of offending or intimidating the crowd. The booing of Goodes intensified in the months after the war dance. Goodes took indefinite leave from the game in August of the 2015 season. Many clubs and players in the AFL supported Goodes in the week of his leave. He returned the following week and played for the remainder of the season after an outpouring of support from fans, actors, politicians, celebrities and teammates, including two spontaneous standing ovations. Goodes retired from the AFL in September 2015. He did not attend the
Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Synonymous with a championship game in North Ameri ...
, where retiring players traditionally take part in a parade, one of only a handful of players to decline this invitation since the parade for retiring players was established.


Documentary

The documentary uses only archival footage and newspaper headlines from the last few years of Goodes' career, with no new interviews or footage. It includes footage of the incidents, as well as interviews and comments from media personalities, politicians, players, officials, and members of the public. Goodes himself was not interviewed for the documentary, although he was consulted and gave permission for it to go ahead. Many commentators and Goodes himself believed that the booing was racially motivated, while others believed that it was motivated by dislike of his playing style or of his response to a 13 year old girl who shouted a racially-charged insult at him. The director's statement about the film states that he did not want to explicitly choose a side but instead wanted to present the footage and allow "the audience to see and hear for themselves what had happened, to ask their own questions and to come to their own conclusions".


Release

''The Final Quarter'' was shown to the 2019 playing group of Indigenous players in a preview screening in February 2019. It had its World Premiere at the 2019
Sydney Film Festival The Sydney Film Festival is an annual competitive film festival held in Sydney, Australia, usually over 12 days in June. A number of awards are given, the top one being the Sydney Film Prize. , the festival's director is Nashen Moodley. Histo ...
. It was shown as part of the 2019 Perth International Film Festival and the Castlemaine Documentary Film Festival, both in July 2019, and aired on
Network Ten Network 10 (commonly known as the 10 Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Paramount Global's Paramount Networks UK & Australia, UK & Australia division and is o ...
on 18 July 2019. Darling also announced that the film will be made freely available to schools and clubs across Australia.


Reception

The documentary was widely praised by critics. Luke Buckmaster, writing for
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
, called it "confronting" and "inspiring", while Blake Howard, writing for Flicks, gave it five stars and called it exhilarating and powerful. Garry Maddox, for the Sydney Morning Herald says "It is a powerful work that stirs deep emotions", while Screenhub's Sarah Ward calls it 'crucial'. The Go Foundation reported that it had received several messages from members of the public who had seen the documentary and wanted to express their remorse for having booed Goodes. Paul Kelly wrote the end credit song "Every Day My Mother's Voice" for the film, and won Best Original Song Composed for the Screen, 2019 Screen Music Awards.


Awards

*2019 Best Reporting of an Issue in Sport (Winner) Sport Australia Media Awards *2019 Best Documentary Feature, Asian Academy Creative Awards: Grand Final winner (World) and Regional Winner (Australia and New Zealand) *2019 Best Documentary Feature Nominee,
AACTA Awards The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, known as the AACTA Awards, are presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). The awards recognise excellence in the cinema of Australia, film and ...
*2019 Best Documentary Feature, (winner)
Film Critics Circle of Australia The Film Critics Circle of Australia (FCCA) is an association of cinema critics and reviewers. It includes journalists in "media, television, major national and state papers, radio, national and state, online and freelance writers, Australian ...
Awards *2019 Racism. It Stops With Me
Australian Human Rights Commission The Australian Human Rights Commission is the national human rights institution of the Commonwealth of Australia, established in 1986 as the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) and renamed in 2008. It is a statutory body fu ...
Award *2019 Best Documentary Feature Nominee,
Screen Producers Australia Screen Producers Australia (SPA), formerly the Screen Producers' Association of Australia (SPAA) and earlier names, is a national organisation representing film production businesses, emerging producers, service providers and screen industry supp ...
Awards *2019 Finalist
Walkley Awards The annual Walkley Awards are presented in Australia to recognise and reward excellence in journalism. They cover all media including print, television, documentary, radio, photographic and online media. The Gold Walkley is the highest prize and ...
*2019 Best Editing in a Documentary - Sally Fryer (Winner)
AACTA Awards The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, known as the AACTA Awards, are presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). The awards recognise excellence in the cinema of Australia, film and ...
*2019 Best Editing in a Documentary Feature - Sally Fryer (Winner) Australian Screen Editors Ellie Awards *2019 Audience Award (Runner Up)
Sydney Film Festival The Sydney Film Festival is an annual competitive film festival held in Sydney, Australia, usually over 12 days in June. A number of awards are given, the top one being the Sydney Film Prize. , the festival's director is Nashen Moodley. Histo ...
*2019 Best Sound in a Documentary (Nominee) Australian Screen Sound Guild


Responses


Apology

On 7 June 2019, on the day of the documentary's premiere, the AFL and all of its 18 clubs issued an unreserved apology for the sustained racism and events which drove Goodes out of the game. They said:
Adam, who represents so much that is good and unique about our game, was subject to treatment that drove him from football. The game did not do enough to stand with him, and call it out. Failure to call out racism and not standing up for one of our own let down all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players, past and present. Our game is about belonging. We want all Australians to feel they belong and that they have a stake in the game. We will not achieve this while racism and discrimination exists in our game... We will stand strongly with all in the football community who experience racism or discrimination. We are unified on this, and never want to see the mistakes of the past repeated.
The statement also said that the football community "pledged to continue to fight all forms of racism and discrimination, on and off the field".


Responses by AFL clubs and players

The
Western Bulldogs The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition. Originally named the Footscray F ...
released their own statement about the documentary. The Hawthorn players all wore number 37, Goodes' jersey number, during their warm ups before their match against Sydney on 21 June 2019 in a gesture of support.


See also

*'' The Australian Dream (2019 film)'', documentary film about Goodes' treatment, and racism in Australia, written by
Stan Grant (journalist) Stan Grant (born 30 September 1963) is an Australian (Wiradjuri, Kamilaroi and Dharawal) journalist, writer and radio and television presenter, since the 1990s. He has written and spoken on Indigenous Australian, Indigenous issues and his Abor ...
*
Nicky Winmar Neil Elvis "Nicky" Winmar (born 25 September 1965) is a former Australian rules footballer best known for his career for and the in the Australian Football League (AFL), as well as in the West Australian Football League. An Indigenous Austra ...
, another Australian Rules footballer who was the target of racially motivated abuse * Racism in sport in Australia


References


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Final Quarter, The Adam Goodes 2019 documentary films 2019 films Documentary films about Australian rules football Racism in sport Racism in Australia Australian sports documentary films 2010s Australian films