London-based documentary specialist Dogwoof has deepened its involvement with “Copa ’71,” directed by Rachel Ramsay (“Clarkson’s Farm”) and James Erskine (“Billie”).
Dogwoof financed the project’s development through its production vehicle TDog and will now take it to market at the upcoming CPH:FORUM, CPH:DOX’s financing and co-production event, in March.
“Copa ’71” recounts the story of the 1971 Women’s World Cup, one of the most successful female soccer tournaments of all time, where lavish sponsorship, extensive TV coverage, merchandise on every street corner and over 100,000 fans turned the historic Azteca stadium in Mexico City into a cauldron of noise while a fawning media treated the players like rock stars. In Aug. 1971, teams from England, Argentina, Mexico, France, Denmark and Italy gathered in Mexico City for a watershed football tournament, which sparked the explosion of women’s football around the globe and was a catalyst that led to the 2015 Women’s World Cup final gaining TV audiences in America larger than the NBA Final. However, not much is known widely about the tournament.
Victoria Gregory of New Black Films is producing. The filmmaking team previously produced “The End of the Storm” about Liverpool FC soccer club and Amazon Prime Video soccer series “This is Football.” This is the third collaboration between New Black Films and Dogwoof, having worked together on worked together on documentaries “Maiden” and “The Ice King.”
Dogwoof executive producers Anna Godas and Oli Harbottle said: “We’re extremely excited to be reuniting with the team at New Black Films to help tell the story of one of the most important moments in women’s sport, which paved the way for generations to follow but which has been overlooked until now. With next year’s World Cup shaping up to be the biggest ever, this is the perfect time to be bringing this story to audiences around the world.”
Ramsay added: “Without question the story of ‘Copa ‘71’ is one of the most important in all of sport, and the mystery of its deletion from the history books one of the most disturbing. We are delighted to celebrate this story of a group of powerful young women, from around the globe, finally getting a chance to set the record straight.”