The world’s of music and football collide once more as Black Arrow, a lifestyle brand focused on the intersection of soccer and black culture, and Italian side, AS Roma come together to follow famous hip-hop photographer Mel D. Cole on his journey to capture his first-ever European football match.
Black Arrow is the world’s first lifestyle brand promoting the intersection of soccer and black culture, and they’ve come together with AS Roma in a partnership that’s set to see both brands collaborating on the creation of original digital content following stories across Italy, Nigeria and the United States. And one of the first things to come from the collaboration is a documentary that follows famous New York City hip-hop photographer Mel D. Cole, who somewhere along the line developed a passion for the beautiful game, as he travels to Rome to shoot his first European football match – Roma v Napoli.
From photographing Drake, Kendrick, Common and Questlove to shooting Italian football club AS Roma, the mini-documentary follows the story of how Mel, one of hip-hop's most famous photographers, often seen sporting a football jersey, ended up in the Italian capital, applying his unique perspective behind the camera lens to capture some of football’s biggest stars. With a guest appearance from Roma’s Justin Kluivert, the cinematically filmed project gives viewers a front-row seat to Mel’s intimate experience as he merges his prowess for photography with his love of the game.
Mitty Arnold, Managing director of AS Roma, Americas said of the documentary: “Opening up AS Roma to the Black Arrow crew has allowed their creative team to tell new stories that approach the club from a completely new perspective. What those of us who work here and those fans who have been deeply immersed in the club for years sometimes take for granted is all new to Mel D. Cole, a Hip-Hop photographer who is still new to European football. This new mini-documentary from Black Arrow allows us to see Roma through the eyes of someone experiencing the passion of Roma and the legendary Curva Sud for the very first time.”
The documentary is part of a broader, first of its kind collaboration, that hones in on finding cultural connections and interesting touch points that attract new audiences to the sport of football. Aaron Dolores, founder of Black Arrow FC, explained his interest in portraying a different view of the game: “What really opened my eyes to soccer was traveling the world, and seeing all the different ways the sport is connected to culture both on and off the field. Once I started scratching the surface I realized that black folks actually have a rich history in the game, and that made me really start to question this narrative we have in America that soccer 'isn’t a black sport'. I wasn't mad at it - just realize it wasn't serving us and also felt it was extremely important for black folks to tell our own stories in the world's biggest sport. I hope this project is a representation of not only the art of storytelling, but creating new narratives for black creatives to show the world that we’re not limited in any one application of our talent and culture.”
Definitely a collaboration to watch as and when they produce more content in the future.
