Death of a Gentleman is a 90-minute film about what we are terming as potentially the ‘biggest scandal in sport’ – the fact that due to the greed, self-interest and corruption in its administration, cricket – the second-biggest sport in the world – is actively contracting towards one market. FIFA, for all we have seen in the last months, at least presides over a sport that is growing. It is impossible for cricket to deal with the many problems afflicting the game, including the sidelining of Test cricket in favour of Twenty20, without proper standards of governance.
Four years in the making, we had our world premiere at the prestigious Sheffield Documentary Festival in early June. We were thrilled that the film received an overwhelmingly positive reaction, some of which are shown in attached screenshots. The audience appeared to share our belief that this is a hugely important film at the right time. The Times covered the film in the next morning’s paper (also attached), the Telegraph gave us the back page of their sports section, and our first review (from a non-cricket fan, the curator of the BFI’s political and campaigning film wing) describes ‘Death of a Gentleman’ in the terms we always hoped audiences would; “this rousing and powerful film about greed and secret deals at the highest levels of cricket is a persuasive and gripping story, whatever your level of interest in the game.”
The film will be going into UK independent cinemas in August, starting in the largest independent chain in the UK – Picturehouses – on August 7. The event on July 27 is our official London Premiere and we would love you to join us there.
