High Five: A Glimpse into Unscripted Docu-Series'

'Last Chance U' has everything you want in a sports docu-series. Underdog characters, hard-hitting action, immersive and intimate stories, and raw drama. This series follows the East Mississippi Community College football team through the intense highs and heart-breaking lows of their season. The stars of the series are its players - guys with struggles ranging from impoverished upbringings to mental illness - all trying to play their way onto Division 1 university football teams. The production scope is enviably broad and deep, with a robust team of cameras following the players to their classes, to their guidance counsellors' offices, into their dorm rooms, and even back to their hometowns to hang with their families. And when it’s game-time, we’re thrust right into it...screaming coaches, bone-crunching hits and emotionally-charged players. The series’ triumph though is not the football, but instead the connection we the audience make with the players as they chase their dreams against all odds.

This series following boxer and pain-killer-addict, Zachary Wohlman, is an exercise in contrasts. In terms of scope, it focuses on one man’s innermost struggles, while simultaneously zooming out to paint a universal portrait of the struggles we all endure. It’s fists and blood, tears and surrender, all told through Zach’s journey around the globe as he communes with fighters of all backgrounds and traditions. It’s about connection and the universal theme of pushing through adversity with our bare hands. At its core, Zach’s ferocious vulnerability, honesty and sense of wonder pull us in and leave us in catharsis.

'Rich Hill' chronicles the lives of three adolescents growing up poor in a rural American town. It captures the brazen hope and unwavering love of youth in a way that fills us with awe. Kids can be notoriously closed off, so the intimacy displayed in this film is a testament to the high degree of trust the filmmakers garnered with their subjects in order to faithfully and powerfully tell their stories. Filled with organic hand-held shots of rusty trains running through dilapidated backyards, Rich Hill is an unfiltered gaze into adolescence and a masterwork of commitment that inspires us to get out into the world with our cameras on our shoulders, get out of the way and let the subjects be themselves.

This series is a first-of-its-kind and a model for what has become a staple in sports documentary storytelling. A juggernaut of immersive, behind-the-scenes storytelling around an otherwise shrouded part of the game - the NFL locker room - 'Hard Knocks' follows an NFL team through its pre-season, telling the stories of both the veterans and the up-comers, all fighting to earn a spot on the squad. Whether it’s the coaches barking at the 60-million dollar quarterback or the wide receivers dancing in the locker room, this show is tantalising for how it pulls back the curtain and shows us what life is like at this elite level of sports. Though it’s full of action and drama, heart and heroics, we feel that the show’s biggest innovation is its surprising use of humour. Through long-lens filming and the extensive use of lav mics, we get to laugh along with the players as they joke around and tease each other as good friends do. Here is where the beauty is, as we are reminded that though our favourite athletes often appear superhuman on the field, they’re regular folk - just like us.