The Soccer Project

2 Players, 25 countries, one game…

I’m smiling… I can’t help it. It feels different from when someone tells a joke — this is joy. This is how I felt when I used to play, when I curled a driving shot around a defender into goal. This is how I felt when I played the perfect weighted throughball to a teammate who then scored. This is how I felt when I when I put a juke on a player who had my number all game, but this time I got the best of him and he knew it. This is how I felt when I coached a player over and over for months — and he finally got it, and I knew because he executed perfectly what I had asked of him. This is how I feel when I see the game transcending the sport. This is how I feel when something so powerful breaks the barriers of borders, religion, race and creed. This is the essence of futbol. This is  a film called Footplay.

Please watch this trailer and then read some important information I’ve put together concerning this film that is still unfinished.

In early January of this year I ran into The Soccer Project on Facebook. The Soccer Project is a film in the works that will be called Footplay. It’s a documentary of Luke and Gwendolyn, two former college soccer stars who couldn’t quite make it to the pros. Now in their mid-twenties and working 9-5 jobs, the two soccer has-beens decide they aren’t ready to quit the game. They take off around the globe, exploring the other, less glorified side of soccer: pick-up games, impromptu contests that happen anywhere and between anyone. From prisoners in Bolivia to moonshine brewers in Kenya, from the futevolie tricksters of Brazil to Chinese monks who play in their traditional robes, Footplay follows Luke and Gwendolyn’s adventures around the world and the people they meet through the game.

I’m very impressed with the trailers of this film and really would like to see Luke and Gwendolyn finish this project. I’ve been in contact with Luke recently and he set me up with this embedded video trailer. IMS is the first web site to use it but I’m hoping there are many more sites that will also utilize it to spread the word about Footplay.  Watching the trailer makes me want to see the full length movie. Perhaps we can get the duo here in the Twin Cities someday for a showing, but first they need to finish the movie and they need our help to do that.

The Soccer Project and their movie Footplay is currently in a contest that only lasts for one more week. Winning the contest will help The Soccer Project finish their film. Please go to the MelroseMac Creativity Pays Contest and vote for Footplay in the lower right corner.

The Soccer Project also has a website and a blog where you can follow the progress of the film.

With production almost wrapped, the film is seeking funding for post-production and finishing. The current timetable is to complete the film by the summer of 2009 and apply to major international film festivals for 2010. They’re currently organizing screenings at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa and the opening of WPS, the new women’s professional soccer league in the United States. The goal is to reach a US audience theatrically and on DVD, as well as taking advantage of the film markets that exist in countless soccer-crazy countries around the globe.

Please share this information with your friends and pass the word. We really need an uplifting film like this in these trying times.