What do film-making and karate have in common? In this case, it is about two men’s response to grief. James Mellor, film-maker, and Matt Handley, karate champion, both from Ripponden, found that one thing they shared was they had each lost their mother at a similar time in their teens. They also discovered that the loss had become a significant driving factor in their very different work practices.
Mellor was smitten with film and tv after his first visit to a tv studio, aged 10. He went with his dad for the making of a programme that needed some live fish (which his father reared). Aged 16, he got work experience at Yorkshire TV and worked his way through the ranks, thoroughly determined to make his dreams a reality. Now, with 30 years’ experience behind him, he’s been running his own film company, Rainbow Trout Films in Halifax since 2010.
Nurturing the UK’s para athletes
For Handley, a former competitive karate champion, England national team member (capped 2005), medallist and much more, it was the spur to open his own karate club. Practising Kempo karate, an ancient tradition with links to meditation and the open-hand philosophy, his Halifax Sport Karate Club is now 20 years old, and Handley is now the national para karate coach: a trainer and advocate for competitors with disabilities. He’s also Secretary of the new English Karate National Governing Body (EKNGB) which he hopes will give him the opportunity to increase the numbers of the UK’s karate athletes and para athletes.
Having been asked to become the ambassador for disabled athletes in 2018, by karate’s then governing body, he had to do a lot of fact-finding to develop bespoke coaching techniques for a range of different disabilities (visual, physical and intellectual). “You have to learn to adapt to the person”, he says of his methods.
It’s something he’s justifiably extremely proud of. His athletes have represented England at the Commonwealth Games, European Games and the Paralympics. He can count multiple medal winners among his protégés. Even more impressively, he’s built this unique practice from the ground up.
From Zoom class to documentary
During the Covid pandemic, Handley continued his classes over Zoom for 22 weeks, working from his garage and still tailoring his training to the different abilities of his online students. Mellors’ son is one of Handley’s students. A germ of an idea took root – and slowly came to fruition over the next few years.
Karate Dreams – Empty Hand: A Sensei’s Story is a short-form documentary about Handley and his extraordinary achievements at building up a dojo firmly rooted in personal growth, resilience and respect. He’s a superb ambassador not only for his sport but also for disability inclusion. Both Mellor and Handley speak with genuine enthusiasm about how people living with disability can be surprising in what they are able to achieve when provided with suitable opportunities.
Handley’s friend Steven da Costa, the Olympic gold medal winner, also makes an appearance in the film, joining the dots between what can be accomplished in a small local club and how that can lead to great international sporting achievement.
“I’m immensely proud of Mathew, the Halifax club, and the team who brought this story to life,” says Mellor. “Karate Dreams is about how small, community-led clubs can change lives. Being recognised on an Olympic-backed international stage validates that those grassroots stories matter.”
World premieres and awards
This film is a real labour of love, doggedly brought to the screen by Mellor on no budget, giving his free time to showcase a story he strongly felt deserved a bigger audience. In September, it received its world premiere at the SportFilm Festival Liberec in the Czech Republic.
Then, in October, it was the only British entry selected to compete at the 43rd Sport Movies and TV 2025 – the Milano International FICTS Fest, where it won the coveted Mention d’Honneur award.
The Milan event is the culmination of a 20-festival international circuit celebrating sport, culture and the moving image. Its programme highlights how film and tv promote sport’s ethical and cultural values globally.
The festival is also recognised and supported by the International Olympics Committee, giving it real sporting heft. No wonder Mellor describes it as being, “like the Oscars for the sports world”.
Mellor, who had previously won in 2024 with his film Rugby Town, about Halifax rugby league, was there in Milan to collect his Mention d’Honneur award for Karate Dreams in person. Handley was unfortunately unable to attend the event, but only because he had another win of his own – a new baby.
L-R: Mellor at the Milan FICTS Fest; the Mention d’Honneur award; Handley with the award
The UK grassroots sports problem
Mellor describes his experience of the sports environment in Europe as being positive and barrier-breaking, offering the opportunity to meet and talk with significant figures like IOC members in a relaxed setting, in contrast with the home market: “People in the UK put you down” he says slightly resignedly.
Handley offers his own take, which is the lack of funding in his sport and in grassroots sport more generally. Outside the UK, there is much greater focus on, and funding for, small clubs like his that are a vital part of the local community. They also provide the kind of nurturing environment that can lead to international excellence.
Handley speaks with good-humoured frustration of seeing an international team come to competition with boxes of new, branded tracksuits, while the UK competitors constantly struggle even to pay their own air fare and accommodation just to take part. As each athlete is sponsored personally (not as a team), which also tends to spread any available donation or sponsorship pool very thinly. Handley knows this all too well from his personal experience, and as his teenage daughter, Skyla, looks set to join the next generation of karate champions, it’s a concern that’s not going away any time soon.
What comes next?
Having lost Sports Council recognition in 2007, the new EKNGB is hoping to apply for National Lottery support, but it’s evident that any dedication to the sport requires constant local fundraising. Funding and support for all grassroots sports clubs seems to be missing from the national dialogue. We often like to talk of English ‘exceptionalism’, yet as a country we seem so reluctant to invest in ourselves and our future generations in ways that might actually help make us genuinely exceptional on a global stage.
As for James Mellor and Matt Handley, I had the pleasure of meeting them last week in James’s Halifax offices, and I’m sure their collaboration is far from over with this film. These two warm, friendly and optimistic men are so plainly driven by their wholehearted commitment to and enthusiasm for what they do, that it becomes infectious. They are an inspiration, and this isn’t the end of their story.
This short film is just one example of small-scale, local talent gaining international recognition – so why are we not better at celebrating our homegrown achievements?
Karate Dreams – Empty Hand: A Sensei’s Story will receive its UK premiere on 15 November as part of London’s E14 Indie Film Fest.
