Mudbloods

Ok I guess I should get the irony out of the way first as here I am writing a review about a sport based on Harry Potter, a series which honestly I really couldn’t care less about outside of the fact it gets kids reading which is never a bad thing. Still here we have a documentary that even with my pre-conceived opinions of Harry Potter I still found myself able to thoroughly enjoy this documentary about real life quidditch.

So what is a “Mudblood”? Well within the world of Harry Potter it is a person of none magical background, but still in possession of magical powers. True this has zero to do with anything in the documentary, so those expecting to see players flying around on brooms may be more than alittle disappointed mu. However despite not processing any form of magic ability it hasn’t stopped Tom Marks and his team based at UCLA from finding a way to bring a piece of the popular fantasy books into the real world as they join the 151+ teams currently active in the USA currently playing the fast growing sport, while at the same time fighting for the sport to be recognised for its athleticism rather than its geeky roots.

Quidditch or muggle quidditch as its sometimes called is a full contact, intergender team game combining elements of rugby and dodgeball, while requiring players to run around with a broom between their legs, constantly on the lookout for the elusive snitch which in this case takes the form of a guy dressed in yellow running around the pitch while the players attempt to capture the tennis ball in a sock which hang out of his pants.  It is of course hard to fault the ingenuity of those who founded the sport, while at the same time the surprising level of on pitch brutality which is highlighted throughout which I’m sure will have even the biggest sceptic of the sport questioning their initial thoughts.

Opening in spring 2011, the documentary follows the UCLA team who proudly sit at the top of the LA rankings, followed by the more colourfully named USC Trojans, Hollywood Harpies, Occidental College and Moorpark Maruaders. Now with an eye on winning the fifth quidditch world cup we follow the team through their preparations for this big event held in New York City and which has been won by Middlebury College who founded the sport back in the fall of 2005 and have since dominated the sport let alone hold the honour of winning the previous four world cups and currently are the favourites to win the 5^th.

While Tom and his teammates might be the main focus, the documentary also goes behind the scenes of the world cup as Alex Benepe the Commissioner of the International Quiddich Association (IQA) as he attempts to put the whole thing together while facing a number of mild breakdowns I’m sure as he has to battle with financing and permissions for the selected location being revoked at the last minute. Like all the players interviewed for the documentary Benepe has an undying love for the sport, while carrying with him a sense of showmanship as he brings an element of the fictional world into reality with his costume choices. At the same time he has to constantly deal with the general view that the sport is a joke rather than the highly competitive sport it is shown here, something only highlighted by a web interview he gives, only for the interviewer to write the sport off as being played solely by nerds with a deluded sense of reality.

Thankfully director Farzad Sangari shoots the film with a much more respectful lens as he builds upon his original 10 minute short he made for his film class while studying at UCLA and which he was able to fund via a kickstarter campaign, while relying on both the Harry Potter and quidditch communities to help promote the film. Sangari here manages gives us a film which manages to balance the rousing team captain speeches and enthusiastic players with more quieter moments such as those following Katie Aiani who box office magazine voted the #1 Harry Potter fan in the world and looking at her collection of memorabilia which consumes her room and alongside the usual books and posters also includes a wand ready for her first child.

It should be noted though for a sport whose roots are based in the world of Harry Potter, the sections involving Aiani really are the sole parts which mention this world, which might come as something of a disappointment to the Potter fans that may enter into this expecting to see more, but despite these roots it would seem that the sport for most players featured stands as its own entity, with UCLA Captain Tom Marks confessing that he’s only finished the first two books. This link also comes with an inflated price tag for anything which can be associated with the franchise as highlighted by the $60 price tag attached to Nimbus replica brooms, while gaffa tape seems to be the quidditch players best friend judging by how much equipment it holds together and leading to Marks joking about finding a tape company to sponsor them.

Somehow Sangari here has managed to turn a film focusing on what from the outset would seem to be anything but a serious sport and instead here gives us a gripping and engaging film that even somone like myself who doesn’t know the first thing about the sport can still enjoy as his use of graphics help fill in the gaps in knowledge while the footage shot at the world cup let alone the warm up games leading up to it are packed with exciting moments or quick paced and frequently brutal action to rival documentaries focusing on more traditional sports to the point were this documentary could change the way we view the sport, as being more than a pastime for geeks.