RDFR partners with Tape 13 Productions to produce ‘The Great Football Giveaway’

24 September 2009

RDF Rights (RDFR), part of the RDF Media Group has joined forces with Tape 13 Productions to co-produce The Great Football Giveaway, a one-hour documentary film that follows one man’s epic quest to hand deliver footballs to Africa’s children.

From AIDS orphans in Malawi, landmine victims in Angola, and the child soldiers of Rwanda, the film has one unifying theme – an unmitigated passion for football.

In 2006 Paul Clarke founded the charity The Great Football Giveaway, to raise money to buy footballs, netballs and pumps and deliver them into the hands (or feet) of children in Africa. So far, more than 10,000 balls have been handed to children in Malawi, Uganda, and Angola.

This September a small group of volunteers set off to Rwanda with another 3000 balls to give away. RDFR and Tape 13 documented the journey. The film is intended to show football as a true leveller and how can it be used as a force for good, witnessed in a football match between Rwandan street orphans and former child soldiers (who just two weeks earlier were fighting in Congo).

Too many African children have no access to real balls, and have to fashion them from old clothes and elastic bands. The Great Football Giveaway not only brings a great deal of joy to children, but school attendance is rising and sports academies are forming, all because children can play the ‘beautiful game’ with real footballs.

The film is co-directed and produced by Bob Wilson and Paul Clarke. RDFR holds worldwide rights and the film will be available for transmission in time for the World Cup schedules in 2010. Taster footage will be available to view at MIPCOM 2009 and the film will deliver by December.

Jane Millichip, COO, RDFR said: “The Great Football Giveaway is at once enlightening and uplifting. This film will tell the side of the African story that next year’s World Cup coverage won’t. I defy anybody not to be moved by it.”

Paul Clarke said: “At a time when football has become over-obsessed with money, marketing and celebrity, we hope that this film offers a very different take on what really lies at the heart of the beautiful game.”