Combat in a Wheel Chair

FIGHTING Spirit will air tomorrow night on the ABC, it is the latest documentary by Brad Cone who followed the story of the 11 members of the Invictus Games wheelchair rugby team.

See the trailer at the bottom of the story.

“During the next two weeks it’s going to be non-stop hysteria with Prince Harry and people lose sight of the background of what  Invictus actually means and what the people competing have gone through,” said Mr Cone.

“We chose the wheelchair rugby, because it’s pretty much combat in a wheelchair,” he said.

“It’s the only contact sport in the Invictus Games and it’s insane, these guys have spinal injuries, there’s two paraplegics and they’re all launching themselves out of these chairs, it is amazing to watch.

“But really it is about the team that comes together, it’s about 11 guys that were chosen and what their stories are and follows them over nine months,” he said.

“How affected veterans are from their service, not just physically but the hidden injuries that you see that come out in this film are really confronting,” said Brad Cone.

Brad, who grew up in Scone, began his career in the Australian Defence Force as a cameraman filming operations and said the stories of veterans being discharged after injuries was close to home.

During a boarding operation, where an inflatable is used to board a vessel, his boat collided with the ship leaving him with three fractured discs in his back and he was medically discharged.

“I was told I wasn’t going to film again and Cosgrove was chef of the defence force at the time and he offered me a job in the media as a civilian so I did that,” he said.

While Brad was able to pursue his career in television, many of the personnel can’t transition as easily.

“One guy summed it really well, he went through the ten different assault courses he has done and said ‘I can hardly sell fridges at Harvey Norman’,” said Brad.

“It’s a lot better now and there is a soldier recovery centre and transition officers, that never existed when we were in, you were just in one minute and out the next,” he said.

“I think it’s important for everyone to be aware of it, it might be just that difference of inviting someone to join the local soccer club or the SES, it might be something as simple as that for someone who is a little withdrawn,” he said.

“When they get out a lot of them have what we call ‘hermit crab syndrome’ they get out and go into a reclusive life, they are on small pensions and they don’t interact, they don’t socialise,” he said.

“We’ve seen that in Scone and I know people in Scone who were affected by this from Vietnam and other conflicts,” Brad Cone said.

During filming Brad said he witnessed the significance of the Invictus Games on lives of veterans he met.

“What Prince Harry started was giving them a sense of purpose and it gets them back out there to train,” he said.

“It brings them back together again, for the first time some 20 years later are coming back into a team environment, into a defence environment so they have a similar story they can all relate to each other,” he said.

“One of the girls we filmed had not really left her house, but is now out there applying for jobs,”he said.

“One of the guys from Victoria Matthew Blunt who literally would not leave his house when I met him, he was just existing he wasn’t living.

“I took him to East Timor last month for a program where they take veterans back to East Timor who served there and to see the transformation over nine months and to go back there and have good memories of the place, he will still live with the horrors of 20 years ago, but he has better memories of now,” Brad said.

Brad said he is proud of the documentary because it digs deeper into the lives of the veterans and he hopes the it give people a greater understanding of the Invictus Games.

“The ABC didn’t try and editorialise this, they just left it raw, which is good,” Brad Cone said.

Fighting Spirit will air 8:30pm, Tuesday on the ABC.

 

Fighting Spirit Documentary Trailer from Brad Cone on Vimeo.