In a nod to Bud Greenspan’s acclaimed Sixteen Days of Glory (1986), which focused on 13 athletes involved in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, this 2012 documentary looks at 12 first-time Olympians as they prepare for and compete in that year’s London games. Sports documentary producer Caroline Rowland made her directing debut along with producing and writing the film. On the announcement of her selection to make the official film of the 2012 Olympics, Rowland praised Greenspan’s Olympics films: “These have really been films that have captured rather than the highlights of the games the essence of what the Olympics is all about.” A former competitive swimmer, Rowland set out to capture what she called “the moment,” the point at which the athlete is so immersed in her or his performance time ceases to exist.
Rowland was a natural choice to produce, direct and write the official film record of the London Olympics. In 1996, the South African native educated at Rhodes University founded New Moon, a documentary production company dedicated to making films about sports and education. She produced “Sport at Heart” (2005), the short film that helped London win its bid to host the 2012 Olympics. She also produced “Vision Beijing: Belief” (2008), a short film about Beijing’s preparations to host the 2008 Olympics. Her other projects include films on the education system around the globe and longevity.
Bowman started with a spreadsheet of 4,600 athletes competing to participate in the games. As qualifying rounds continued, the field was narrowed to a few hundred first time competitors, from which she chose 12 representing not just different continents and sports but also different roads to the competition. Among those featured are Americans Missy Franklin, who won four gold medals and one bronze in women’s swimming; John Orozco, who placed fifth in the men’s artistic all-around gymnastics competition; and Queen Underwood, who lost her first lightweight boxing match to the United Kingdom’s Natasha Jonas.
Traveling to Kenya, Rowland photographed David Rudisha’s training in preparation to capture the gold medal in the men’s 800-meter race. Then she journeyed to India, where Heena Sidhu prepared for the women’s 10-meter air pistol event, in which she placed 12th. British cyclist Laura Kenny speaks of completing “Forty laps, as quick as you like,” before taking the gold in the team pursuit, with a record 3:14.051, and the omnium. Also featured are Brazilian swimmer Bruno Fratus, British handball player Holly Lam-Moores, British runner James Ellington, French sprinter Christophe Lemaitre, Chinese diver Qiu Bo, Australian cyclist Caroline Buchanan, Ireland’s gold-medal boxer Katie Taylor and Kosovan-Albanian judoka Majlinda Kelmendi.
The 2012 games made London the first city to host three Summer Olympics. More than eight million fans bought tickets to watch 302 events in 26 sports over the course of 17 days. The opening ceremonies staged by British director Danny Boyle, an Oscar®-winner for the 2008 Slumdog Millionaire, set new standards for dynamic staging. The games were marked by the first participation of female athletes from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei and the first appearance of women’s boxing, making the Olympics the only international sporting competition to feature men’s and women’s events in every sport, and swimmer Michael Phelps’ final four gold medal wins, bringing his Olympics total to 23, the current record for career Olympic gold medals.
During the games, three different camera crews covered the various events. Then Rowland had to rush to finish the film in time to premiere at the BFI London Film Festival in November 2012 before its U.S. premiere in May 2013. The finished film includes a variety of contemporary musical pieces accompanying the events, including Ellie Goulding’s “Anything Could Happen,” Brandon Flowers’ “Only the Young” and Seye’s “London Girl.” With its British screening, First was the first official Olympics film to premiere in the same year as the games it covered. The film was named Best Foreign Feature Documentary at the Moondance International Film Festival and was nominated for an Emmy.
Producers: Caroline Rowland, Paula Wright
Director: Rowland
Screenplay: Rowland
Cinematography: Ross Giardina, Ben Joiner, Lee Pulbrook, Felix Seuffert, Guy Wilson
Score: Sacha Puttnam
Cast: John Orozco, Heena Sidhu, David Rudisha, Majinda Kelmendi, Carolyn Buchanan, Missy Franklin, Usain Bolt, Tom Daley, Michael Phelps, Oscar Pistorius (Themselves)
