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Murderball - Henry Alex Rubin, Dana Adam Shapiro

Threat advisory: Severe - Severe risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

Murderball is a documentary about quadriplegics who play full-contact rugby in "Mad Max" customised wheelchairs.

This incredible film, which has just been accepted into the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, follows the USA team-mates as they overcome unimaginable obstacles to compete in the Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece. Murderball takes you inside the hard-core world of quadriplegic rugby, at times violent, heartbreaking, wildly competitive, but always awe-inspiring. Featuring quadriplegic rugby teams from Canada, USA, Japan, New Zealand and Australia, Murderball will have you cheering for more.

Persons of interest

Henry Alex Rubin .... Director
Dana Adam Shapiro .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Murderball official movie site
Murderball film production notes
Murderball QuickTime movie trailers
Awards and film festivals:

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS - Oscars) 2005: Nominated: Best documentary feature
Australian International Movie Convention (AIMC) 2005: Screening
Cinematic Intelligence Agency Trenchcoat Awards 2005: Won: Best title; Nominated: Best film (English language), Best biography, documentary or true drama
London Film Festival 2005: Film on the Square
Melbourne International Film Festival 2005: Zero to Hero: Survival of the Fittest
Online Film Critics Society Awards 2005: Nominated: Best documentary
Sundance Film Festival 2005: Nominated: Grand Jury Prize: Documentary

Studios and distributors:

Think Film * Hopscotch Films * 21st Century Pictures

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

You have to be a little bit crazy to live in a wheelchair. The world is the wrong height and the wrong distance and it's all designed to stop you from getting where you want to go. If you last in the chair long enough to do anything about the world you'll have gone insane (-er). You also have to be insane to be a Canadian; this is a country where it gets so cold in winter that even the dirt freezes. So what are you going to do when you're a Canadian and they take away your legs? Invent a game called Murderball.

Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro's documentary on this full-contact, hard-core sport - and the men who play it - pulls no punches: rugs are lifted, rocks are turned, closets are rattled. There's nothing like watching people who don't like each other meet up on the big screen. And then there's the sport itself: it's extreme. It makes ordinary rugby look like netball. Imagine history's favourite psychopaths - the Nazis - in a demolition derby. With points. Hee, hee, hee: it's enough to make you want to chop your feet off.

Murderball is the kind of documentary that even a bloke will enjoy, and not just because it's got sport in it either! Go you wheelies!