Vijay Patel
Champions is about a basketball coach who is court-ordered to coach a team of people with learning disabilities hoping to make the Special Olympics regional finals.
The film stars Woody Harrelson, who plays Marcus the basketball coach and Kaitlin Olson, who plays Alex. The team Marcus coaches is called ‘The Friends’, who are made up of people with learning disabilities.
Woody’s character Marcus starts off uninterested in helping the team but through ‘The Friends’ he learns to be a better person.
It was brilliant to see so many talented actors with learning disabilities taking centre stage. Some have never acted before, but you could not tell.
Joshua Felder plays Darius, a young man with acquired brain injury who is wary of the coach. Kevin Iannucci plays Johnny who is due to leave home and to move in with his friends and James Day Keith plays Benny, who is experiencing bullying at work. And keep an eye out for Consentino played by Madison Tevlin, she has some very funny one liners!
It was important to see people with a
learning disability
A learning disability is to do with the way someone's brain works. It makes it harder for someone to learn, understand or do things.
living full lives because it showed what we can achieve. It was also good to see that they were not shy to talk about adult themes like
relationships
Relationships are about the people in your life. You might have different types of relationships like friendships, family relationships, or a boyfriend or girlfriend.
and independent living.
The film also tackles the issues of bullying and people using the ‘R’ word showing how outdated views and language can affect us as people with a learning disability, and how people should really stop using these terms.
This film shows that people with a learning disability can get involved with sports and why it is important for everyone to have those opportunities to socialise. I really relate to this film as I love football and am the captain of Mencap’s football team (also, a message to Universal Pictures if you are reading this, Mencap FC would be happy to star in ‘Champions 2’!).
Overall, I thought the film was challenging but also funny and heart-warming. I hope it starts more conversations about people with learning disabilities being properly represented on the big screen.