Quad Rugby/Story - Movie - The Goal

UNITED STATES QUAD RUGBY ASSOCIATION

October, 2005

Denver made film receives second film award
“The Goal” wins at IFFF

LOS ANGELES- The International Family Film Festival ran for nine days and celebrated the closing night with an award ceremony on October 1, 2005. “The Goal” was awarded the IFFF Independent Spirit Award. This festival was started in 1994.

The IFFF Independent Spirit Award is given each year to the film that best expresses independent filmmaking. Chris Shoemaker, executive director and co-founder of IFFF said, “’The Goal’ must be seen on the big screen in order to get its full impact. What was refreshing is that you can hear the audience breathing with the film. They cry, laugh, and feel; they even applaud. It’s an excellent family film that allows you to see how strong the human spirit can be.”

“The Goal” is a feature film that chronicles the lives of two athletes who are on an adrenaline track, one to the Olympics and the other to the world of Pro Soccer. Steve and Jason cross paths while rebuilding their lives following severe accidents.

Darla Rae, writer and director of “The Goal” is seeing her dreams become reality as a first time filmmaker at 47. Rae, who lives in Littleton, said, “This is such an honor for us to be chosen to receive the IFFF Independent Spirit Award out of all the other films at the festival. I am so glad “The Goal” touched as many as it did during the festival. Although we have had a good response during the festival we are still looking for distribution so “The Goal” can reach even more people.”

For more information about “The Goal” or are interested in distribution for the movie please visit www.thegoal-movie.com

September 20, 2005

"The Goal" gets inspiration at TVIFF Denver-based film receives the Maggi Allen Filmmaker Award

Temecula, Calif.-As director, writer, and producer of "The Goal," Darla Rae's ambitions for her first feature film started to become reality on September 18, 2005. She was awarded the Maggi Allen Filmmaker Award at the Temecula International Film and Music Festival (TVIFF).

TVIFF celebrated the 11th anniversary, however, this was the inaugural year for the award. The Maggi Allen Filmmaker Award was named for the Co- founder of TVIFF. This award is given to the best inspirational film. "It was very exciting getting into the festival, not to mention winning this award at our first festival," said Rae.

"Now that we have been able to experience an actual film festival, my goal for "The Goal" is to do even better at the next one," said Rae. The film will be featured at the International Family Film Festival (IFFF) in Los Angeles. The dates of the IFFF are September 23, 2005 through October 1, 2005. For specific viewing times visit http://www.iffilmfest.org/05FilmList.html.

For more information about "The Goal" visit www.thegoal-movie.com or for festival information visit www.iffilmfest.org

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For Immediate Release
September 3, 2005

LA native makes good with film career
Indie filmmaker got her start at Azusa High

Azusa, Calif.-- Darla Rae's feature film, "The Goal," will be screened at the International Family Film Festival (IFFF) in Valencia and the Temecula Valley International Film and Music Festival (TVIFF). TVIFF runs September 14 through September 22; IFFF runs September 23 through October 1.

Rae grew up in Azusa, California and graduated from Azusa High School in 1976.
She was active in sports and was an honor student. Anyone who knew Rae during high school should have seen this film achievement coming, as her true passion was drama. Rae was active in all the theater performances while she attended Azusa High.

While Rae still loves acting, her newest passion is writing and directing. Her film, "The Goal," is based on a true story about two athletes that become quadriplegics because of tragic accidents. They learn through the sport of wheelchair rugby that life is not over, it is just different. "One of the biggest things we wanted to portray in this movie is that just because you are in a wheelchair, you are not mentally handicapped and certainly not dead," said Rae.

Rae's goals for "The Goal" are to spread awareness about wheelchair rugby and to sell the movie for enough money to build a training center in Denver, where she currently lives, for wheelchair athletes. "We want everyone to know how amazing these athletes are and how interesting wheelchair rugby really is," said Rae.

To learn more about the movie or the sport, look online at www.thegoal-movie.com

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Team USA Cleans Up
August 21st, 2005

Cast and Crew members wash cars to help 2 Team USA To go to World games. Denver Harlequins Jason Regier and Chance Sumner have been selected to TEAM USA.

Cast and Crew members earned $570, by washing cars to help the athletes pay their way to Brazil. Team USA athletes must earn all of their money in order to compete. Regier and Sumner both played roles in The Goal. Regier also served as Executive Producer with Darla Rae

By Dave Burdick | Boulder Dirt Thursday July 28, 2005

A 1999 four-on-four scrimmage of the Denver Highlanders wheelchair-rugby team caught the interest of Gary Beaudette, who plays a more familiar brand of rugby.

The Highlanders, a team of quadriplegic athletes, played a game sometimes called "murderball," which involved a volleyball and looked like it was part football, part basketball and part hockey; if they weren't whipping past each other toward the goal line, they were knocking each other over in custom-built wheelchairs that looked like tanks.

The Highlanders invited Beaudette and his rugby club, the Denver Harlequins, to borrow a few wheelchairs to try the sport. The able-bodied rugby players agreed, some worried about beating the quads at their own game. After all, they had full use of their entire bodies. The quads generally had use of between 10 and 20 percent of their bodies, with varying arm and hang function.

The able-bodied team lost, somewhere in the neighborhood of 60-20.
"They loved it," says Jason Regier, one of the players on the winning Highlanders team that day. "They asked us to be a part of their club."

The Highlanders took on the name of the Harlequins and have since risen to national prominence in wheelchair rugby, finishing fifth in the nation at this year's championships in Louisville, Ky.

A wheelchair rugby team - or a quad rugby team, or a murderball team, depending on who you talk to - puts four players on a hardwood court at a time. The object is to pass and otherwise move the ball down the court until one of your players can carry it across the goal line for a point. Players have to pass or dribble the ball every 10 seconds.

Each player has a function rating, literally tied to the amount of body function that they have, from 0.5 to 3.5. At any given time, a team's four players' ratings cannot add up to more than 8 points. One possible lineup could be a 3.5 player, a 2.5, a 1.5 and a 0.5.

Regier, 30, is a 0.5 player who will play for this year's U.S. national team at the World Wheelchair Games in Brazil along with fellow Denver Harlequin Chance Sumner, 28, a 3.0 player.

Regier explains the ratings:
"Low-pointers like myself, I have about 10 percent use of my body," he says. "I have the top fourth of my chest, I have a full bicep, I can move my wrist and I have some shoulder muscles. I can't straighten my tricep; I can't straighten hand above my head."

He says that low-pointers, 0.5s and 1.0s, tend to be blockers, who slow or hit opposing players. Mid-pointers, 1.5s, 2.0s and 2.5s, are like the running backs of football, able to carry the ball well and with greater mobility. High-pointers, 3.0s and 3.5s, would be the quarterbacks, able to move quickly and pass well, Regier says.

"A three-pointer is going to have use of about 20 percent of their body," he says. "You probably wouldn't be able to tell that their hands are impaired at all. They've got very good hand use."

These are the players for whom Regier does the blocking and against whom he defends.
"They're the stars. They're the guys that are the fastest, they can throw the ball."
The sport has gotten national attention with the limited release of the documentary, "Murderball," which opens today at Denver's Esquire Theatre. The film follows the story of the 2004 U.S. and Canadian Paralympic quad-rugby teams, as well as the lives of individual players.

Darla Rae, who is on the Harlequins' board of directors, enjoyed "Murderball," and has more than a passing interest in its success. She's currently in talks with distributors about a quad rugby film called "The Goal," which she wrote, directed and produced.

"I started as an actor," she says, "and have done makeup and all of those things behind the scenes, (production-assistant) jobs."

In addition to augmenting her movie-related career, Rae would like to use some of the film's proceeds - if and when it sells - to finance a dedicated practice facility for the Harlequins.

She also sets up the Harlequins' demonstrations at hospitals and schools.
"It's really kind of cool because when we first get there, they all have their idea about a person in a wheelchair," she says.

So the Harlequins go out there and play rugby, passing and hitting and generally shocking the viewers, some of whom, Regier says, initially think that if you're in a wheelchair, you're retarded or can't do anything.

"One of the coolest things that I remember an elementary student telling me is - we did this demonstration - and the first thing he told his teacher is, ?There's no way that these guys can be disabled an play this sport - these guys cannot be disabled,'" Regier says.

The hospital demonstrations for the recently injured, though, hold a different kind of significance to some of the players.

"I'd first seen it at the hospital," Regier says of quad rugby. "I had seen a tournament there, and, just like everybody, I thought these guys were crazy, and I was right."

Regier puts the recently injured into three categories: those who will return to their previous lives in as many ways as possible, those who will be depressed and not regain their previous personalities ("and who's going to fault them?" he asks), and those who "get back to life and they do more than they ever would have if they didn't have the injury."

Murderball has been a big part of being active for Regier, as it is for many players.
"When I get in that chair," Regier says, "I'm four times quicker than I am in my everyday chair - and it's freedom. You forget you're in a wheelchair, and you're just playing a sport. And so it's just like you're no longer disabled. It's that rush that lets you know you're still alive. Some might get it from skiing, other sports, but for quadriplegics - and over half of spinal cord injuries result in quadriplegia - this is the only team sport out there.

"We play the hardest-hitting, the toughest sport out there, and these are the most severely disabled athletes that compete in athletic events."

By Robert Denerstein, Rocky Mountain News
July 30, 2005

Jason Regier plays for the Denver Harlequins Wheel Chair Rugby team, which is ranked fifth in the nation. Regier, 30, also was just selected for the national wheelchair team and will travel to Rio de Janeiro in September for the World Wheel Chair Games. He has seen and approves of Murderball. "The movie really portrays these athletes as they are. Just about everyone who sees the film - and who plays the sport - feels that they got it right." (The graduate of George Washington High School ended up in a wheelchair after an automobile accident on his way back to college at Oregon State.) Regier has his own film in the works, as executive producer of The Goal, a locally-produced film that has been submitted to several film festivals. It chronicles the pre- and post-injury lives of two wheelchair athletes.

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