Anstey Nomads

ANSTEY NOMADS

SUBS [2017] – Anstey Swifts


Subs is a film by artist Jamie Shovlin that follows a season in the life of youth Sunday League football club Anstey Swifts. Titled in relation to the subscription fee paid by each child to play, the film fuses elements of the essay film, social history and self-portrait to create a multi-dimensional account of the Swifts’ expanded landscape throughout the 2016/7 season. Intercut by interviews with historians from De Montfort University’s International Centre for Sports History and Culture, Subs relates the social value and historical precedents of community activity in the construction of individual and local identities. Against the backdrop of Brexit and the nationwide political upheaval of 2016 alongside growing fears over children’s safety and health, the film questions ideas of identity and community through the relationships between parents and players, aspirations and reality and past and present within the club.