Port Adelaide Football Club is one of Australia’s oldest and most successful sporting clubs. 2020 marks its 150th anniversary. This is Port Adelaide explores how the club has become an integral part of the identity of Port Adelaide people, and the passion that flows through players and one-eyed supporters. Through compelling first-hand accounts, This is Port Adelaide shares the stories of those who have claimed victory wearing the coveted guernsey, and the loyalty of their devoted supporters. 2020 brought unprecedented challenges, a global pandemic, limited crowds, and players quarantined. But the undying connection of the Port Adelaide community, passed down to each new generation, underpins the resilience the club has needed to adapt and survive. This is Port Adelaide is a universal story about belonging to your tribe and to something bigger than yourself. More than simply a football game, this is a story about what it means to belong

150 YEARS

From humble beginnings as a social club for young men, Port Adelaide Football Club has risen to great heights since its inception in April 1870. The oldest footy club in South Australia, PAFC has been home to some of the greatest football players of all time and has won a record four Champions of Australia titles, a record 36 SANFL Premierships and an AFL Premiership. The club’s fame has spread across the country and PAFC became the first, and only, non-Victorian traditional club to become a part of the national Australian Football League. Alberton Oval has been PAFC’s since 1880. Their current home-away-from-home is Adelaide Oval. They now have a third home at Jiangwan Stadium in Shanghai, China, where in 2017, Port Adelaide hosted Gold Coast. They became the first AFL clubs to play for premiership points outside Australia and New Zealand. PAFC has overcome the challenges of the past 150 years with their signature grit and determination. These challenges have included: players being enlisted to both World Wars, the difficulties of entering the national league, and the division and reunification of their SANFL and AFL teams. Despite all this, PAFC has risen stronger and more united to celebrate their 150th year and proven that truly nothing can tear them apart. Their capacity to win in a tight finish has always been remarkable. Due to the terms of the 1994 AFL licence agreement with the SANFL, from 1997 to 2010 PAFC was forced to co-exist in both the SANFL and AFL, but not as a united, singular club. From 1997, the SANFL team had to train away from the AFL unit. In 2001, a one-night-a-week training session was permitted. This split of the PAFC club, teams and community did not break the character of SA’s most successful and passionate football empire. PAFC won the 1998 and 1999 SANFL premierships and proved that the club could be torn from the outside but never pulled apart internally in its drive for success. In 2010, PAFC members voted unanimously to reunite the AFL and SANFL clubs. It took two attempts to persuade the SANFL that this reunification was in the interests of the Port Adelaide community as well as the South Australian football community at large. The return to one united club was the beginning of the journey for Port Adelaide out of some of the clubs grimmest times both on and off the field. In 2004, Port Adelaide put its name on the AFL premiership roll call, ending the three-peat run of Brisbane at the MCG. The path to this success was one of the most demanding chapters in the club’s 150 year story. Port Adelaide’s revival in the past decade was built on a platform of a united club, a return to Adelaide Oval and spreading the club’s vision beyond the AFL’s national agenda to go offshore to China. Many — if not all — of these goals were considered impossible to achieve. But when has Port Adelaide not met a challenge with unbridled ambition?

KEY CREATIVES

NICOLE MILLER

NICOLE MILLER

DIRECTOR

Nicole is a skilled storyteller with credits in both narrative and documentary projects. She has produced and directed The AFL Show, a 25-episode series introducing AFL to a Chinese audience, and Power Dreaming, which explores the power of football in Indigenous communities. She was a producer on series two of Chef Exchange, which screened across QTV in China, Discovery SouthEast Asia and SBS Food. Nicole recently directed a short documentary Deafinition, in partnership with the SA Film Corporation and SBS, which aired on SBS’s Short Film Festival in early September 2019.

PAUL RYAN

PAUL RYAN

PRODUCER

Paul Ryan is a seasoned Adelaide-based producer and director whose experience creating documentaries, film and corporate projects spans three decades. Paul established 57 Films to produce high-quality, story-driven content for major clients. He produces and directs television and factual series for national and international audiences, including Chef Exchange, a food and wine show broadcast across China and Australia. Paul managed the Australian component of the production of Speed, a 40-part Chinese TV series. Paul facilitates international productions seeking to film in Adelaide. His recent successes include CHS Media’s If Time Flows Back, and Barefoot Through Australia for Berlin-based Schiwago Film.

ISAAC WALGOS

ISAAC WALGOS

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Isaac has worked as a cinematographer and creative collaborator alongside 57 Films since its inception. He has built an impressive slate of TV and cinematic credits in sport, lifestyle and general entertainment, working with the ABC, SBS, and the Seven and Nine Networks. His projects include Onward to Victory, the short documentary Deafinition with Nicole Miller, Power Dreaming, a documentary about the power of football in Indigenous communities, Always the Quiet Ones, 21 Ada Street, Are We, The Big Red and The AFL Show, a 25-episode series introducing AFL to a Chinese audience.

JAMES MOODY

JAMES MOODY

PRODUCER

For more than 15 years, James has specialised in producing content for online communications, resource, government and the education sectors. His passion lies in telling compelling stories through documentary filmmaking. James has produced several long-form documentaries over the past 10 years about well-known Australian scientists William & Lawrence Bragg, Driven to Diffraction and Microbes to Macrobes, the story of Australian virologist, Frank Fenner. With experience in project management and line producing, client services and business development, James is a highly motivated, results-driven individual with a keen eye for detail.

 MATT GIERKE

MATT GIERKE

EDITOR

Matt is 57 Films’ lead creative editor. He holds a Diploma in Applied Design in Interactive Media. His work with 57 Films includes editing, graphic design, motion graphics, online training development, colour grading and account management. Matt’s editing credits include the TV movie documentary Onward to Victory, short film Deafinition, multi-series documentary Chef Exchange, documentary Power Dreaming and The AFL Show for CCTV China

BENJAMIN SPEED

BENJAMIN SPEED

COMPOSER

Benjamin Speed is an Adelaide-born film composer, musician and producer currently living in Los Angeles. He has scored over 30 films including the multiaward-winning The Cat Piano, the Australian Documentary Prize winning The Snowman, the AFIA winning A Northern Town; the MTV 180 Project winning Dungoona, the Comic-Con winning Street Angel, 3 Tropfest Australia finalists Carnivore Reflux, Glass and The Maestro, the acclaimed short films Tender and Anima and the Berlinale Crystal Bear and Sundance Film Festival Best Director winning 52 Tuesdays. Benjamin has won one, and been nominated for three, APRA Australian Screen Music Awards, won Best Score at the St Kilda Shorts Festival and was nominated for an American MPSE Golden Reel Award for Music Editing.

THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN FILM CORPORATION PRESENTS A 57 FILMS PRODUCTION IN ASSOCIATION WITH ADELAIDE FILM FESTIVAL

“THIS IS PORT ADELAIDE”

Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nicole Miller

Executive Producers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Paul Ryan, Daniel Norton, Justin Kurzel

Producers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nicole Miller, Paul Ryan, James Moody

Director of Photography . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Isaac Walgos

Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Matt Gierke

Sound Recordist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Will Sheridan

Composer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Benjamin Speed

Sound Engineer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pete Best

Featuring music by The Hilltop Hoods.

PRODUCED AND FILMED IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA FINANCED WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN FILM CORPORATION