Told by the pioneering women who participated, this is the extraordinary story of the 1971 Women's Soccer World Cup in Mexico, a tournament witnessed by record crowds that was written out of sporting history by an institution that didn't consider women's football to be commercially viable.
Recent World Cups and Euros have started to fulfil the potential for women's football, but what's the future for women in sport?
We will be joined by Rachel Ramsay, the director of Copa 71, after the screening for a Q&A.
Meet our speaker
Rachel Ramsay is a multilingual filmmaker and TV producer. As director, her most recent feature documentary, ‘Copa 71’ was a breakout hit of 2024, telling the unknown story of the unofficial and groundbreaking women’s football World Cup in Mexico 1971. Her prior film work includes 2019’s Humanitas Prize winning series ‘This is Football’ (Amazon Originals) as well as the feature docs ‘The End of the Storm’ (Altitude Entertainment/Paramount+), the forthcoming BIFA long-listed ‘The Flight of Bryan’, ‘Sachin: A Billion Dreams’ and 'Le Mans: Racing is Everything'.
As a journalist she worked at the BBC World Service, NYT, IHT, CNN and France 24 and as a TV producer spent a decade creating and delivering first series of multiple award-winning and long-running shows such as Travel Man (C4) and Clarkson's Farm (Amazon Studios). She is currently developing further documentary work, as well as writing her first fiction feature.
More about this event
This event is part of the 911勛圖Festival: Visions for the Future running from Monday 16 to Saturday 21 June 2025, with a series of events exploring the threats and opportunities of the near and distant future, and what a better world could look like. Booking for all Festival events will open on Monday 19 May.
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