A new documentary is set to be released charting the history of Glentoran Football Club. The feature length film will also take fans behind the scenes during the 2021/22 season.
'Glentoran - The East Side Story' is produced by Beyond Borders and "delves into the heartbeat" of the East Belfast club. Produced and Directed by Matthew Irvine and Matthew Wenlock, it is hoped the movie will be released this year.
The makers believe the documentary "touches on every nerve and fibre" of the club, from humble beginnings to the Detroit Cougars and big European nights against Benfica, Juventus et al. It also casts a spotlight on the "heartbeat" of Glentoran FC - the people.
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"It has always been a passion of ours to tell some of the incredible stories that has come out of Northern Ireland and the story of Glentoran was one that we felt needed to be told. That’s why we approached the club," the Beyond Borders team said.
"It has been clear to us from day one that the people are the heartbeat of this football club and to be able to give something like this back to the people of Belfast is a privilege and honour. We also think people will be mind blown about some of the things this football club has achieved.
"Glentoran Football Club, a side forged from shipyard steel in the shadow of Belfast’s Titanic gantries, have been a long time at the fair. Battered by the fallout of two World Wars, the rise and fall of heavy industry, they make the pilgrimage, week in week out to a throwback of a museum arena in the hope of a brave new dawn.
"Nostalgia is a powerful drug, but it fuels the hopes and dreams of thousands of supporters, yard men's sons and daughters, as they chase the long-gone glory days. The one unassailable weapon in the club’s arsenal is its people.
"They have delivered time and time again when the club has faced into the abyss. 'Glentoran - The East Side Story', touches on every nerve and fibre of a once great football institution as it attempts to navigate the long road to Eden and brighter days further down the slipways.
"This is a club roared on to victory by a teenage George Best, imbued in the glory of Van Morrison, poet, and mystic of the east, born within the roar of the stadium. A fuel which drove the club to engage with the royalty of European football, Juventus, Arsenal, Rangers, Benfica, Borussia Monchengladbach and Ajax devoid of fear in halcyon days, and emerge anointed in adulation.
"An accelerant that propelled a team of part time players across the United States in the summer of 1967, as they helped pioneer Association Football from the East Coast to the West, safe in the knowledge they’d all “be back in work in the paint shops and work floors of the shipyard on Monday morning.”
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