Background

I led the Carlton FC internal creative team in pitching a feature-length documentary series to our primary partner Virgin Australia. The episodes would tell deeply personal stories of players with migrant family backgrounds and allow players to return to their families homeland to explore that history. The series would subtely incorporate Virgin Australia products such as new flight paths, Lounge offerings and services.

The first documentary followed the story of Jack Silvagni, part of a three generation Carlton family, following in the footsteps of his superstar father and grandfather. The Silvagnis are now Melbourne royalty but this all hinged on a young Giacomo Silvagni venturing across the world from his hometown in the Italian Alps in the 1940s.

I wrote, shot and edited the hour-long documentary which included surprising Jack with his whole family meeting him in their Italian hometown for the end of the visit, and his father presenting him with his first guernsey.

Following the success of the first documentary, we followed up with the story of Darcy Vescio – groundbreaking AFL Womens star. Her family is half Italian, half Chinese by way of Hong Kong. We explored the complex parallels of early international immigrants and the pressure of launching a womens league in a male-dominated sport.

Impact

The success of the first documentary generated an extension for two more documentaries to be created and was the first true long-form content created by an in-house AFL creative team. Bloodlines: Darcy Vescio launched with a premiere screening in the Melbourne CBD.