We had the pleasure of hosting a screening of the work-in-progress Pelada (previously known to most of us as “The Soccer Project”) here at Duke on October 29th, and got the chance to talk to the filmmakers, three of whom are Duke alumni. As John Turnbull, editor of The Global Game and also a Duke alum, put it after the screening, the film somehow captures that football game many of us carry around in our heads — a pickup game, played in a random place with strangers, that can open up a space for community, communication, even communion. I thought it was a wonderful movie, as did the large crowd, which gave it a standing ovation. And we had the treat of perhaps the best question I have ever heard posed in a university setting, from a young boy who asked the essential question: “Why did you do it?”
I hope we’ll be able to host a local premier of the film when it is released next year, and I (along with the filmmakers, I’m sure!) would love to hear comments about the film from those who were there.
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