Documenting Darwin – Tymunna Clements

City of Darwin’s LAUNCHmedia team have been busy of late, popping up at Darwin Pride Festival, Darwin International Film Festival, GeeCon and a multitude of other events. Off The Leash caught up with three team members who are using social media to share their creative talents and tell local stories.

You may have already seen Tymunna Clements’ amazing trick shot videos online. With the greatest of ease, the 17-year-old deftly kicks a spinning football over his shoulder to bounce off a trampoline and into a basketball hoop. The tricks keep coming, each one looking almost impossible, yet he always gets them in the net, followed by a casual thumbs-up to the camera.

“There’s no secret to it, just a lot of time and energy,” Clements says. 

A lot of time and energy to get to the point of taking the shot, but by the time he’s ready to film, the odds of getting the ball in are high.

“It doesn’t take too long to film a trick shot, usually around 20 minutes, but when it’s a difficult one it takes a lot longer,” he explains.

“I’ve had a lot of good responses from Indigenous mob, it helps me get out there.”

A former Wanderers player and footy-lover, Clements developed his improbable shots while kicking around with his brother in 2013, before posting the best ones on Facebook, and seeing them go viral.

“My little brother made it up as a little challenge I think, and then from there as I got older I just kept practising, and then started doing impossible shots that people just find crazy. Most recently I’ve added in the Indigenous and Torres Strait flag to the video, to help with recognition for us. Hopefully it can inspire more kids around Darwin to get into sports.”

Now Clements is turning his skills to photography, in particular sports. He’s working with the City of Darwin Launch program to shoot events around Darwin and wants to to con-tinue to photograph NTFL games.

With Year 12 coming to an end, the Casuarina Senior College student plans to spend next year combining his two loves: capturing the thrill of sports on camera and mastering those impossible shots. Watch this space.

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