Hard as Puck
Q&A With The Filmmakers.
Hard as Puck
- RELEASE DATE: 06/11/2026
- RATING: Mild Coarse language
- RUNTIME: 93mins
- DIRECTOR: Isaac Elliott
The Garden Island Pirates are the best para ice hockey team in Western Australia. There’s no competition … literally. A scrappy, mixed-gender group of amateurs, they strap on sledges to play against one another as stoically deadpan founder and would-be figure-skater Dan Perrett calls the shots from the sidelines. Booking the rink is half the trouble, and much of the group’s time away from it is spent negotiating volunteer committee positions and wrangling sponsorships. That all changes, however, when three women on the team earn the opportunity to represent Australia in its first-ever Women’s World Championships in Slovakia. Scheduled to compete against heavyweights like Norway and the United States in a bruising, physically demanding sport, the newcomers aren’t given a snowflake’s chance in hell – but that doesn’t mean that they’re not about to go down swinging.
Showtimes / Piccadilly
Hard as Puck
ISAAC ELLIOTT – WRITER & DIRECTOR
Isaac Elliott is a creator, director, and writer who grew up in Alice Springs. He works across television series and documentaries. Notably, he co-created and directed episodes of the ABC/Netflix series MaveriX, receiving two nominations for the 2023 ADG and AACTA awards. The action/adventure series follows a team of teenage motocross riders in Australia’s spectacular Red Centre. It was the largest production ever filmed in the Northern Territory.
He was also listed on Inside Film’s RISING STARS directors for 2022. In 2019, he directed The Legend of Burnout Barry, earning his first ADG Award nomination.
His diverse work includes documentaries for VICE, SBS and ABC, along with being the star and producer of FINKE: There and Back, narrated by Eric Bana. He was once beeped at on the highway by a tradie who recognised him from the movie — It was mostly “I seen you in the movie (…unintelligible).” Isaac gives a thumbs up and changes lanes.
Hard as Puck is his feature documentary directorial debut. It follows a team of para ice hockey players from Perth, determined to take on the world. Set to premiere at MIFF 2026. Isaac continues to develop a unique voice within the Australian screen industry as a paraplegic writer and director. When he’s not directing, you’ll find Isaac creating characters out of thin air at local improv comedy shows, or riding his wheelchair-adapted motocross bike.
CHANEL BOWEN – PRODUCER & ACCESS CO-ORDINATOR
Chanel Bowen is a regional, disabled producer through her company, Norfolk Pictures. Hard as Puck is Chanel’s feature producing debut, supported by Screen Australia, Screenwest, VicScreen and MIFF through their Premiere Fund.
Recently, Chanel has joined producers Cody Greenwood and Daniel Joyce at Rush Projector on their comprehensive documentary slate for development in 2025 and early 2026. Exposure to their impressive international-facing slate strengthened Chanel’s experience with budgets, finance plans, marketplace connections and applications.
Chanel was awarded the Regional to Global Australians in Film and Screenwork’s Internship in LA for 2022, allowing her to expand her producing experience with Animal Logic Entertainment and Truant Pictures in the USA. Chanel was recognised by Screen Producers Australia as a ‘One to Watch’ and was mentored throughout 2023 by Goalpost Pictures founder, Rosemary Blight. In 2026, Chanel is excited to be selected for the SBS x SPA Practitioners Program, which supports underrepresented practitioners to attend Screen Producer Australia-led events throughout the year.
Chanel is trained as an Access Coordinator with Bridge06 and Screen Australia. In addition to her advocacy for disabled practitioners and stories on screen, Chanel works in several public and private sectors advocating for disability rights. Chanel is working with Noel Smyth and Kirri Mae Sampson on the feature documentary following John Williamson’s final live tour, True Blue, with development support from VicScreen.
NOEL SMYTH – PRODUCER & CINEMATOGRAPHER
Noel Smyth is an independent documentary filmmaker based in Victoria, Australia. For over fifteen years, he has worked across directing, producing, cinematography, editing and photography, developing a practice grounded in long-form observation and visual restraint.
His work is intimate and shaped by a commitment to character-driven, observational storytelling. Working predominantly in a vérité mode and frequently alone or with minimal crews, Smyth creates conditions of trust and proximity that allow complex human experiences to unfold with nuance and emotional clarity. In 2019, Smyth received the Doc Edge Film Festival awards for Best Director and Best Emerging Filmmaker for his debut feature documentary Camino Skies, an examination of grief and pilgrimage. His second feature documentary, Gloriavale (2022), a true-crime Australia-New Zealand co-production investigating an insular religious community in New Zealand, was selected for the Cannes Marché du Film Docs in Progress and released across Australia and New Zealand to critical acclaim.
An advocate for “slow filmmaking,” Smyth resists extractive production models in favour of sustained engagement and ethical collaboration. He believes that stories of consequence require patience, care and responsibility – an approach that prioritises the well-being of participants and collaborators, and results in greater access, cinematic integrity and trust.
Marked by atmospheric imagery, quiet humour and a sensitivity to moral complexity, Smyth’s work is concerned with finding humanity within difficult terrain.
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