The Story
2014, Roller Derby World Cup in Dallas
On the Road to Dallas is a documentary charting the creation of Team West Indies, a new national roller derby squad comprising an unlikely group of British women. In a sport that is traditionally very white, there has been an under-representation of black players in roller derby, and this film follows the team’s preparation for the 2014 Roller Derby World Cup in Dallas.
From what started as an in-joke to an official entry, this documentary follows the characters, stories, determination and teamwork in the build-up to Dallas. With over 30 countries competing, and many with trained elite athletes from around the world, Team West Indies is very much the underdog.
As roller derby is relatively unknown in the West Indies, the team come from various parts of the UK and the USA, and all of West Indian heritage. They have mixed and diverse backgrounds, from a white girl born in Jamaica and brought up in the Bahamas to the full-blooded Jamaican who has spent her whole life in the UK. This film follows the lives of skaters, ‘DisorderLee’, ‘SheRarr’, ‘Jobson’, ‘Rammit’ and ‘Attack’ on their journey to Dallas where it’s as much about defining their identity as it is about training their minds and bodies for the competition ahead.
We are fundraising to complete this film and are offering you the chance to help this story reach a broader audience.
After filming in London, Birmingham, Croydon, Manchester, Sheffield, Swansea and Dallas, we are now reaching the final stages of production and aim to have this project finished by June 2020. This last stage is crucial and will determine the future of the project. A crowd funder has been organised to cover the last production and post-production costs.
What is Roller Derby?
Roller Derby is a full contact women’s sport played on quad skates on a flat oval track. Originating in America, it is currently the fastest-growing women’s sport in the world. In the UK alone it has gone from zero to more than 100 teams in the fourteen years since it arrived.
The Rules
Roller derby is played on an oval flat track.
Two 30 minutes halves are split into jams, and each jam lasts up to two minutes.
Jammers are marked by a star on their helmets, and they start behind the blockers
Jammers earn one point every time they pass a member of the opposing team.
The blockers will try to stop the opposing jammers getting through the pack, while trying to help their own jammer getting through.
Any skater who performs an illegal act gets 30 seconds in the penalty box.
The team with the most points at the end of the game wins
