Category: Short
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‘The Trophy Thief’ (2015) doesn’t ring true
I’m sorry, but The Trophy Thief did not open my heart. Instead, I feel manipulated, as if the creators are simply playing to sympathies by casting a short-statured soccer player as Ben, the boy who steals an unjustly-awarded MVP trophy.
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‘I Play Soccer’ (2011) at a Sierra Leone academy
I Play Soccer is a 6-minute short film about the Sierra Leone football academy run by the Craig Bellamy Foundation. By Stefan Lovgren, the film is more advertising than documentary. Like many soccer movies, I learned more from researching the subject than watching this film.
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‘No Ball Games’ (2012) is darkly funny, twisted humor
No Ball Games is a 7-minute short film that might turn off a typical soccer movie fan. I found humor in it but my hubby did not. It reflects the director’s sense of humor, entrancing the viewer with a boy whose ball goes over a wall into a secret garden.
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US Soccer history should not forget ‘Redemption Song’ (2016)
Redemption Song is an important piece to watch on US soccer and Afro-American history. It is the true story of the Howard University all-black Mens Soccer team, compressed into a woefully short 16 minutes. The team won the 1971 NCAA championship, only to see it perhaps unjustly vacated and the team put on probation. To prove…
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‘Mr. Smith’ (2014) pursued his dream from Portmouth to AUS
In 12 minutes, Jeremy Santolin’s micro-documentary Mr. Smith reveals the dogged path traversed by a player who turned pro at age 27. Matt Smith grew up in the Portsmouth youth system but was cut at age 17.
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Kurdistan’s ‘Baghdad Messi’ (2012) is well-worth your time
Baghdad Messi is a heartbreaking 19 minute short film that recently became available on Amazon Prime. The film was just shy of the final cut of nominees for Live Action Short Film of the 2014 Academy Awards.
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Sexy, funny Chilean ‘Lady Futbol’ (2005)
Lady Fútbol is a 2005 comedic episode of Infieles, a Chilevisión adult TV series about infidelity. A young wife in a sewing factory is ignored by her husband, who is more interested in football.
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‘Surviving and Soccer in Sierra Leone’ (2015) – an Ebola story
Erison Turay and his mother lost 38 of their relatives to Ebola in Sierra Leone and were left with 15 family orphans to care for. He and his mother overcame their infections, but survivors cannot find jobs and their struggles to live continue on.
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WW1 recruits thought ‘War Game’ (2002) was a sport
Michael Foreman is a renowned British author and illustrator of many children’s books. But the book that affected people the most was his 1989 “War Boy”, about what it was like to grow up in a small village at the start of World War I.
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‘The Opposition’ (2014) – Chile’s national stadium used for torture
I watched The Opposition last year but didn’t write about it because the film was so disturbing. This ESPN 30 for 30 TV episode documents how General Pinochet’s junta tortured and killed dissidents. They used the Chilean national stadium as a prison while the team prepared to qualify for WC 1974.
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An ambitious referee in ‘Rättskiparen’ (2010)
Rättskiparen is a short Swedish documentary about Martin Hansson, a former firefighter, divorced with 2 sons, who puts football before everything else in hopes of refereeing at WC 2010.
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‘Kick Like a Girl’ (2008) is full of positive role models
Kick Like a Girl is a 25-minute HBO documentary that follows a team of 8 year old girls who, having devastated all competition the previous two years, decide to get more challenge by playing in the boys division.
