DOCUMENTARY REVIEW: FTN reviews Mudbloods: A Film About Quidditch

Mudbloods (u)
Directed by: Farzad Sangari
Running time: 89 mins

Transforming Harry Potter’s fictional competition into a physically demanding, real-life sport, Quidditch has secured its place as one of the fastest growing collegiate club sports today. MUDBLOODS follows the resilient underdogs of the UCLA Quidditch team as they make their way to the Fifth Annual Quidditch World Cup in New York City. Through nail biting victories and losses, the dreamers, creators and athletes who make up this exceptional community come together to make this magical sport into something you could’ve never imagined until now.

Quiditch, the magical game invented by J.K. Rowling in her Harry Potter books, has been un-magically created in “the muggle world” and is played in a number of Universities in America. Mudbloods follows the story of one team, UCLA whose players really give it their all in practice and competitive games to make it to the Quiditch World Cup in New York.

This is a very heartfelt and honest documentary that is taken extremely seriously by its participants, all of whom attend University. The players, both male and female, as in the books and films, run around the pitch with brooms (that’s dust brooms), wedged very tightly between their legs as they throw and pass the bludgers (squidgy balls) whilst trying to score the quaffle (that’s a soft volley ball) into one of the hoops. Oh, and as for the Golden Snitch; this is a tennis ball wrapped up in a sock which is hooked onto a belt of the runner and teams have to grab it to win thirty points.

If this seems completely silly reading the above description, I assure you it’s all true. The teams and documentary film makers really are taking this very seriously and that is perhaps why the documentary is so funny, though not necessarily in an intentional way.

The World Cup featured 90 teams which proves this is something of a cult and enjoyed by young people. It’s easy to see that no-one turned up to spectate as the stadium and grounds where it was hosted was completely empty of anyone other than those participating. The only crowd scenes were during the finals where it was mostly made up of the losing teams.

This is one documentary that looks and feels that it was made by students, involving students playing a game that only students may be interested in. Speaking as a true fanboy of all genres, I can appreciate and applaud them for making a game based in a fantasy world and re-imagining it into the real world, but to make a film about it when no-one already supports the ‘sport’ seems like a lost cause before the cameras even rolled – a load of quaffle!

2 out of 5 Nerds