Join KTF for a very special screening of ‘Power Meri’ on Wednesday 1 May at Dendy Opera Quays, Sydney. KTF is thrilled to partner with Power Meri for this special screening and will host a Q&A with one of the film’s main character - Amelia Kuk.
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ABOUT AMELIA
Amelia Kuk is a PNG international and Brisbane Broncos’ premiership winning women’s football player. Amelia started playing rugby union at 17 years old and made her debut for the PNG Women’s 7’s team at 18 in Hong Kong. From there she switched over to rugby League in 2016 and made the QLD Women’s rugby league team. Amelia played two matches for the Australian Jillaroos in 2017 and recently played in the Women’s Rugby League World Cup for the PNG Orchids. A registered nurse working in a surgical ward at the Princess Alexandra hospital in Brisbane, Amelia is also a master trainer for the Optimisation Hub which is an organisation delivering programs to educate athletes about resilience and mental agility to consistently perform at their best. Amelia is a role model for young women in PNG and uses rugby league as an opportunity to make a difference and show that women are capable of playing at the same level as men.
Amelia joined KTF as an Ambassador earlier this year.
ABOUT POWER MERI
Power Meri follows Papua New Guinea’s first national women’s rugby league team, the PNG Orchids, on their journey to the 2017 World Cup in Australia. These trailblazers must beat not only the sporting competition, but also intense sexism, a lack of funding, and national prejudice to reach their biggest stage yet.
Human rights organisations describe Australia’s nearest neighbour, Papua New Guinea, as one of the worst places in the world to be a woman. But where international observers see despair, the pioneering players of the country’s new national women’s rugby league team, the PNG Orchids, see opportunity.
Proud, strong and hopeful, these women have overcome more challenges than most to take the field in their much-loved national sport. But after years playing at grassroots level with no coaches, funding or support, they have just three months to transform themselves into a competitive national team to take up an invitation to compete on the world stage.
Power Meri takes audiences inside Papua New Guinea and behind the scenes of women’s sport as it follows the Orchids through selection trials, arduous training with a fly-in-fly-out Australian coaching mentor, and diverse personal struggles as they prepare to face the world champion Australian Jillaroos and compete at the Rugby League World Cup in Sydney.
But their mission is greater than winning. In a country with appalling rates of domestic and sexual violence, sport is one of the few arenas in which Papua New Guinean women can show their strength. If they can perform like men on the rugby field, can they change attitudes back home when it comes to the treatment and status of women?
Power Meri explores the broader social impact of the rise of women’s sport through themes of empowerment, national identity, prejudice, resilience and hope.
From the roughest suburbs of Port Moresby to the lush PNG highlands, Power Meri takes viewers on a captivating journey through rarely-seen corners of PNG, guided by young Papua New Guinean women who dream of changing their country through sport.