Holding the man

Members of the Wesley College football team were thrilled to be involved in the making of a feature film during the recent school holidays. Holding The Man is an adaptation of the hugely successful memoir of the same name by Timothy Conigrave. In constant print since 1995, the book also won the United Nations Human Rights Award for Non-Fiction in 1995, and was listed as one of the 100 Favourite Australian Books by the Australian Society of Authors for its 40th anniversary in 2003.

The stage play adaptation has been performed in over a dozen productions from the original Griffin Theatre Company production to Belvoir Street, Melbourne Theatre Company and many more. There have been productions in London's West End and this year in Los Angeles. Acclaimed theatre and film director Neil Armfield AO is directing the film.

The students, pictured above, were filmed playing a game of football against Xavier College (the school which Tim and John, the two lead characters in the book, attended in the 1970s) and which actually took place at Xavier in 1976. To ensure authenticity, the boys donned the same woollen footy jumpers worn in 1976, which to their amazement were “surprisingly comfortable”!

In an interesting connection, the father of one of the students who took part in the recent filming actually played in the Wesley College First XVlll in 1976.

The College looks forward to the release of the film and thanks the students for being involved in the making of what should be an outstanding film with an important social message.