1L's Street Soccer Film 'Pelada' Sells Out First Screening at Film Festival
Word of positive reviews of “Pelada,” a documentary about street soccer, is spreading. So much so that its first scheduled night at the Newport Beach Film Festival sold out and a second showing was added.
All the while filmmaker Luke Boughen is prepping for finals at the University of California, Irvine School of Law. Before starting law school, he and his fiancée Gwendolyn Oxenham set out on an international quest to capture the feel of pickup soccer games throughout the world.
“Pelada,” the Brazilian word for street soccer, premiered at South by Southwest Film Festival in March and has picked up some impressive reviews since, including a piece in Monday’s New York Times.
The film covers soccer in its rawest forms in 25 countries and include a lunch-break game between construction workers who are in the midst of building one of the stadiums for this year’s World Cup soccer finals in Cape Town, South Africa.
The Times notes that the film includes some thrill-seeking moments, such as when Oxenham and Boughen bribe their way into a La Paz prison to play with the inmates.
But, the Times writes, “the film is at its most moving when Oxenham and Boughen don’t force the issue, when they simply tune in to the existing vibe and take delight in the unspoken kinship as well as the feel of the ball on their shoes or bare feet.”
See the trailer:
NEW Pelada Trailer from Rebekah Fergusson on Vimeo.
