About Portrait of a Team

Portrait of a Team is an original documentary series from Hengistbury exploring what it means to belong to a team in women’s sport. Moving beyond results and league tables, each season follows one team over time to document the people, relationships and realities that shape life within it. The series considers not only performance, but identity, friendship, pressure, work, family and the uncertainty of building a career in sport.

The first season follows Birmingham Panthers through their second year in the Netball Super League. Rather than treating results as the whole story, the series looks at what sustains a team when progress is difficult to measure on the scoreboard. Across six episodes, it explores identity, friendship, resilience, work, family and the uncertainty of sporting careers through the experiences of the players and staff living them.

About Birmingham Panthers

Birmingham Panthers are a professional netball club representing Birmingham and the wider West Midlands in the Netball Super League. Established in 2024, the Panthers entered the competition in 2025 as one of two new franchises introduced for the league’s relaunch and move towards a more professional model.

In 2025, Knighthead Capital Management acquired a majority stake in the club, bringing the Panthers into its growing portfolio of Birmingham sporting interests alongside Birmingham City Football Club and Birmingham Phoenix. The investment connected the newly established netball franchise to Knighthead’s broader ambitions for sport, infrastructure and regeneration across the city.

The 2026 season was the Panthers’ second in the NSL and their first under head coach Sonia Mkoloma. The team finished the 2026 season in 7th position. The first season of Portrait of a Team explores the realities of elite sport from within the Birmingham Panthers team, as they compete in the only women-led sport.

About Hengistbury

Hengistbury is an independent editorial company dedicated to women in sport. Through original film, photography, conversations and written editorial, it documents the athletes, ideas and wider culture shaping the modern sporting landscape.

Drawing from fashion, art and cinema as much as traditional sports media, Hengistbury approaches women’s sport as a cultural subject in its own right. Its recent coverage has taken the company from the Tour de France Femmes and Solheim Cup to ATHLOS London, alongside original studio series and long-form documentary production.

Portrait of a Team is Hengistbury’s original documentary franchise, created to explore the people, relationships and experiences behind a team across the course of a season. Birmingham Panthers are the subject of its first six-part series.