Down and Derby

Fishnet stockings, tattoos and roller skates: a short profile of Ottawa’s roller derby queen.

Creative team

Writer/director/producer: Sarah Boothroyd

Director’s statement

Sarah Boothroyd says:

“Down and Derby is a quick peek inside one woman’s obsession with roller derby – a rough-and-tumble sport and counterculture movement that is gaining popularity all over the globe.

In the past few years, hundreds of teams have emerged from Germany to Mexico to Sweden and beyond.  There are currently over 14,000 players registered on the International Rollergirls Roster.

My goal as director was to illustrate Kelly “Honey Bee” McAlear’s passion for derby and to delve into her motivation for devoting her time, energy – and even her apartment – to building a league in Canada’s capital city.

My aim as cameraperson, sound designer and editor was to illustrate the quirky, quick and colourful nature of derby through the audiovisual style of the film.

In addition, the aesthetic treatment – with its fast edits, helmet camera footage and rolling shots – is designed to put the audience into the shoes (or perhaps more accurately, the roller skates) of a derby queen.”

About Sarah Boothroyd

Down and Derby is Sarah first film.

Her audio work is frequently heard on CBC Radio and has been presented at the International Features Conference, on BBC Radio 4 and on Chicago Public Radio.

Her sound art has been presented at the Radio Without Boundaries Festival in Toronto; the True/False Film Festival in Missouri; the Association of Women in Radio and Television Conference in Nairobi; and on Deep Wireless 3 and Deep Wireless 4, two CD compilations of radio art from around the world.

Sarah has received two 2005 CBC Radio British Columbia Student Journalism Awards, a 2006 Canadian Association of Broadcasters Scholarship, a 2007 Canadian Association of Journalists Award, and a 2008 Ake Blomstrom Award from the European Broadcasting Union.

She is currently completing her Masters in Journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa. She completed her undergraduate degree in Philosophy at McGill University in Montreal.