This Is Roller Derby

This Is Roller Derby
This Is Roller Derby
Directed by	Daniel Hayward
Written by	Daniel Hayward
Starring	April Ritzenthaler
Production; company	Aisle 5 Pictures
Distributed by	Titan View
Release date	11 October 2011;
Running time	82 minutes
Country	Australia
Language	English

This Is Roller Derby is a 2011 Australian documentary film by Daniel Hayward on four Australian roller derby teams over the course of a season.

The film features members from

Ballarat Roller Derby League.^[1]^[2]

The DVD for the film released on 20 February 2013.

Synopsis

The film follows four Australian roller derby leagues,

Ballarat Roller Derby League, Adelaide Roller Derby, Canberra Roller Derby League and Geelong Roller Derby League, over the course of twelve months, and documents the start of roller derby in Australia and overseas.^[3]

Cast and crew

The film was directed by Daniel Hayward and features members from the Ballarat Roller Derby League and members from US leagues, particularly

TXRD Lonestar Rollergirls

.

Some featured Roller Derby skaters include:

April Ritzenthaler (Narrator)
Katrina "Mad Mac" MacDonald
Haylee "Seven Lux" Hartley
Rebekah "Apocalypse Nerd" Bailey
Sarah "Barrelhouse Bessy" Strong-Law
Nadia "Smartypants" Keane
Michelle "Miss Hellfire" Murrel
Kim "Jelli Knight" Adams

Filmink gave a positive review for This Is Roller Derby, calling it a "gutsy and eye-opening insight into a sport on the rise and the world around it."^[4] SBS gave a mixed review for the film, saying that while the first half of the film has "genuine energy", that "in driving his material towards a feature-length running time of 80-odd minutes, Hayward steers into a cul-de-sac, showing longer extracts of the action from tournaments rather than digger deeper into some of the personal stories."^[5]