The Spirit Circle: Where to watch documentary about Bengaluru’s Ultimate Frisbee community

Photographer-turned-documentary maker Vikas Badiger, who runs the page Faces of Bengaluru on social media to present stories from, of and by the city, had made a documentary called The Spirit Circle. The 60-minute documentary about the mixed-gender sport Ultimate Frisbee and the community that plays it in the city. Vikas’ film, which has had a few public screenings, is now more widely available, having secured a streaming slot. The Spirit Circle is now available on Apple TV.

Talking to OTTplay earlier about his choice of subject, Vikas had said, “It’s a fascinating sport, especially because it is a mixed-gender game. There are no referees, you need to maintain self-decorum and not just be motivated to win and that differentiates it from a lot of other sports. I used to play cricket earlier and the idea of having someone from another gender play with me or against me is something I would have never thought of. Of course, tennis and badminton have mixed double games, but that is a two-people sport. Understanding spaces among genders has been a huge part of doing this documentary. My team and I then thought of doing it as a Bengaluru origins story, even though there have been a few stories about Ultimate Frisbee in the public domain. The Spirit Circle looks at who started it, how they got the first disc to Bengaluru and the rules they followed.”

As for the research that went into the film, considering Ultimate Frisbee became a sport more than a decade and a half ago, he says, “It started as a recreational game in 2005, but it was in 2007/2008 that they formalized it with rules (much like rugby). Today, India has the most mixed gender teams in the world. This is what we have tapped into in the documentary. There is not a lot of content to research, so I spoke to people who have documented it in the past, original founders of Ultimate Frisbee in Bengaluru, former captains, etc. At that point, we had a lot of content, but speaking to them also gave us a direction on how to condense it.”