Director Nicole Miller on Why "This Is Port Adelaide" Is About More Than Just AFL
South Australian director Nicole Miller didn’t expect to unearth a story about human connection and community when she made This Is Port Adelaide, a documentary about the AFL club’s 150th anniversary, but that’s exactly what she discovered.
The doco is a look behind the curtain into Port Adelaide’s 150-year journey as Australia’s most successful AFL club. Miller’s cameras follow fans, politicians, past and present players, coaches and media personalities, as they passionately share with audiences what the 150th milestone means for the club.
Of course, what will strike viewers from the very first shot is that the documentary is entirely black and white. As Miller tells Student Edge over Zoom, this was a very deliberate decision.
"The black and white is a nod to the club’s history of them being called the magpies," Miller says.
"We also wanted to jump around in time, and we didn’t want to pull the audience out of the story with archive footage side-by-side with modern footage."
One of the more pressing questions we wanted to ask Miller was why she chose Port Adelaide to make a doco about.
"We had worked with Port Adelaide before when they played the first AFL game in China, so we already had a relationship with them," she says.
"With their 150th anniversary, I wanted to capture the personality at the heart of the football club."
It’s that personality that shines throughout This Is Port Adelaide. Whether stadium-bound fans are speaking of their love for the club on the train or the viewer is taken inside a clubroom tour, there is a real sense of candidly witnessing Australian culture in action.
"We were very much trying to tell a story and focus on that community," Miller explains.
“As Australians, there’s not a lot of stories about AFL out there. It was a way of capturing what is unique about Australians and distill this part of our culture that has gripped most of our nation.”
Despite AFL being a large part of Aussie culture, Miller has never had a strong connection to football. Instead, she was drawn to people’s undying love for their favourite club.
"I was never a big fan of footy growing up. Obviously, that’s changed now but I came into it thinking, ‘Why do people love it so much?’"
Throughout the doco it’s obvious Port Adelaide is more than just a football club to supporters, with Miller likening attending a game to going to church.
"It’s like a religion. These fans have a shared place, values, highs and lows. A real emotional catharsis for them," she points out.
Part of that emotion from the documentary is drawn from the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused massive disruptions to the 2020 AFL season.
However, instead of hampering Miller’s production, she believes it only reinforces the doco's message of having a strong community surrounding you.
"We didn’t want to make COVID the main point. It’s meant to be about people," she says.
"As we adapted though, we realised COVID actually spoke to these themes of community more: The Port Adelaide community were pulled apart from each other and the rituals they have."
Miller admits her work might not be the usual way to approach a club documentary, but she is glad she took the risk as she believes it encourages the audience to think about the bigger questions in life.
"It’s not just about Port Adelaide; it’s a universal story about passion."
This is Port Adelaide is having a limited showing in Australian cinemas from 22 April, so be sure to find your local screening. It is rated M for occasional coarse language.
Header Image: Supplied
