Documentary team will follow Vikes athletes on and off the pitch, exploring existential questions surrounding athleticism
Photo by Angelo Pontalti.
A new documentary will follow the Vikes Men’s Soccer team for two years, as they prepare for their season and host the national U Sports Men’s Soccer Championship in November 2026.
For the documentary’s director, Raymond Dimmitt — a UVic philosophy graduate — deeper questions are at play than how the team performs at the championship. He says the documentary will explore young players’ identities, posing the existential question: what does it mean to be an athlete?
The project is an intersection of Dimmitt’s passions: sports, philosophy, and film-making, with a topic that carries personal resonance. Growing up, he was a keen soccer player before discovering a talent for basketball. Emigrating from the UAE, Dimmitt was eager to play varsity hoops, but this dream was rapidly shot down. Faced with the high standard of play in Canada, Dimmitt was disappointed when he didn’t make the UVic team.
“My whole kind of idea of what I’m supposed to do was flipped on its head,” Dimmitt said.
That identity crisis, realizing how precarious an athlete’s sense of self can be, is at the core of the documentary. Many of the athletes in the film may be uncertain about their futures after university. One injury, or simply aging out of collegiate sports, can spell an early end to one’s athletic career. Dimmitt remains positive, however, and is careful not to project assumptions of failure.
“As an athlete myself,” he said, “we expect the best.”
Still, it’s inevitable that, for many, varsity sports will not lead to a full-time career. “We have to be able to underline the reality of like, not everyone’s going to make it pro,” Dimmitt said.
“But in that same instant, we get this beautiful array of existential dialogue of what it actually means to walk on the lines of the athlete — ‘will I make it pro, will I not? What happens afterwards if I don’t? Who am I? What am I defined as?’”
He’s not asking these questions alone. The documentary’s co-writer, Emily Thomson — a fellow philosophy graduate — brings her perspective to the project. A soccer player of sixteen years, Thomson says she personally connects with the players. Having missed out on important games due to injuries; she knows what losing an opportunity can mean to an athlete.
“We’re really hoping to capture the essence of what it means to have your identity tied to your athletic career,” she said, “and the existential nature of transitioning out of that collegiate athlete realm.”
Dimmitt’s documentary concept originated from a joke about filming the interpersonal dynamics of his recreational soccer team. His friend and UVic varsity player, Yassin Guitouni, brought the idea to the Vikes, who loved it.
It snowballed from there. “All of a sudden, I’m talking to Nick Clarke, the dean of varsity athletics at UVic,” Dimmitt said.
The project, which begins filming this summer, arrives as the conversation around soccer in Canada reaches fever pitch. Alongside the U.S. and Mexico, Canada is set to host the FIFA World Cup in 2026, with matches being held at Toronto Stadium and BC Place in Vancouver.
Closer to home, UVic will host eight top competitors for the 2026 U Sports Men’s Soccer Championship — the university’s first time hosting in 15 years.
Despite the auspicious timing, the film is not intended to be promotional, nor is it a conventional tale of a team’s road to competition glory.
“Nationals is a huge part of it, it’s kind of a peak in the documentary,” said Thomson, “but what we keep saying is, ‘it doesn’t matter if they win, or lose, or do well or not. It’s still a story.’”
Though this will be a demanding two years for the Vikes, Dimmitt says that the team, including Head Coach Larry Stefanek, have been welcoming. Dimmitt wasn’t sure this would be the case.
“From my side, [there was hesitation] for sure,” he said, “I was worried about coming in. I was concerned about being an unbalanced outsider who would come in.”
As a “fly-on-the-wall,” Dimmitt wants to maintain team chemistry, but capture vulnerability. “We need to make sure that we are capturing the full picture of things, the rage, the anger, the frustration, the stress. That is such a big part of sport.”
Ultimately, the message goes beyond the locker room. Dimmitt said, “Even though it’s about soccer — If I’m able to get through to you, even if someone’s not even played the sport, if even a sliver of a second you feel a little bit seen, understood — I have completely accomplished [my task] as a filmmaker. That’s my complete goal.”
