Craven Cottage – 19-20 September 2008
We are pleased to host the inaugural Kicking & Screening Football Film Festival celebrating the beauty, excitement, passion, and vivacity of football as captured and expressed on film.
Both football and film can make us smile, bring us to tears, keep us riveted; and the participation of viewers is best when shared collectively. Join us as we honour football as a story, from freestyle footballers in search of their hero, to behind the scenes footage of football champions with unparalleled intimacy, to a comedic look at how football can dwarf even the most significant rites of passage.
We'll also hear from filmmakers, sports writers, and players about the stories behind the reel and the pitch (see itineraries for confirmation).
Relax in Craven Cottages "cinema" for the day, enjoy a drink on the river and take the opportunity to get some behind the scenes photos.
"When a game matters to billions of people, it ceases to be just a game. It was only a matter of time before good football films started to be made. FC Barcelona Confidential is just one wonderful example. It's astonishing that London didn't have a football film festival before, but here one is at last.
A decade ago I wrote an article about going to a Portsmouth game with Anthony Minghella, his father and son. Minghella was a big Portsmouth fan. It was a freezing cold day, and Portsmouth were terrible and lost at home to Ipswich. But Minghella said football was an example for film directors. "Football has high drama, but in the most rigid of forms," he said. "Very few outcomes are possible - it's rare for more than four or five goals to be scored in a game - yet moment by moment it is very exciting. That is a real lesson to writers. I wish every film had as exciting a shape as most football matches."
Minghella died in March after an operation went wrong, never having seen Portsmouth win a trophy in his lifetime. Two months after his death they won the FA Cup."
Simon Kuper, sports columnist for the Financial Times
"Football acting as inspiration is hardly original, but rarely is it celebrated as effusively and accessibly as it is in the films that we will see over the course of this festival. It is truly a great honor to have our first film open such an event. This is a festival that I believe will only go from strength to strength and one that in years to come we will all be able to look proudly back on and say that we were there when it started."
Leo Pearlman Film Producer
All proceeds from this event will go to the Fulham FC Community Sports Trust.
Kicking and Screening timings:
Friday 19th September
-
6:30 pm Arrival and Photo opportunities
-
7.00 pm Champagne and Canapés
-
7.30 pm In the Hands of the Gods Screening
-
9.00 pm Q&A with cast and producers
-
Auction/raffle to follow Q&A
-
11.00 pm Carriages
£30.00 per person Book Tickets Now|
Friday film: In the Hands of the Gods
In the Hands of the Gods is the true story of five young British freestyle footballers journey across the Americas to Argentina in the hope of meeting their hero, Diego Maradona. This coming-of-age road movie tells the story of a group of young men in pursuit of a lifelong dream. The group of friends is made up of urban teenagers, most of whom have never been abroad before: a devout Christian, a cheeky scouser, a failed footballer, a pampered teenager and an asylum seeker from Somalia. These boys, ranging from 17 to 22 years old, represent the diversity and attitude of British youth today. For them, Diego Maradona epitomises everything they love about football; he is both the creator of their art and their inspiration during hard times in their lives. Along the way they found that it wasn't just Diego they were searching for, but something inside themselves With no money for food, accommodation or travel, the freestylers hustle and busk their way from London to Buenos Aires using only their football skills and their charm, often being forced to go hungry and to sleep rough. In the Hands of the Gods is a voyage of adventure and self-discovery that will take these boys far from their homes, on a trip that will change their lives forever.
-
11.00 am Arrival and photos
-
11.30 am Speaker: David Winner
-
12.00 pm The Cosmos Screening
-
2.20 pm Justin Webster - Director of FC Barcelona
-
2:45 pm FC Barcelona Screening
-
4.15pm Les Yeux dans les Blues Screening
£30.00 per person Book Tickets Now|
Saturday films:
Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos
A look back at one of the more curious fads in American professional sports, the sudden rise and precipitous fall of the North American Soccer League, spanning its existence 1968-1984, as seen through the experience of its most famous club, the New York Cosmos. The NASL made very little impact in the US, where soccer had virtually no following, until in 1975 the New York Cosmos succeeded in signing the most famous player in the world, Pele. Attendance for Cosmos games exploded, outdrawing even the New York Giants and New York Jets of the NFL, to where exhibition games in Seattle were drawing huge crowds, and when Pele announced his retirement in 1977 his final game drew the biggest crowd to ever see a soccer game in the US. His retirement from the game began a slow but steady decline for the NASL as money issues for the league and the spending practices of the Cosmos became a running controversy.
FC Barcelona
FC Barcelona is the biggest football club in the world. Its 102,000 shareholder members all have seats at the Nou Camp, Europe's biggest stadium and the right, every four years, to elect the Club President the dream job for thousands of ambitious, patriotic Catalans. In 2003, thanks to poor domestic performances and a spiraling debt, the club sank into the worst crisis in its 100 year history. With the promise of root and branch reform, a new regime was ushered in under the leadership of the charismatic Joan Laporta. With unprecedented and exclusive access, directors Webster and Hernandez spent a year at the Nou Camp documenting the new boards efforts to turn an old fashioned Catalan family affair into a global football business.
Les Yeux dans les Bleus (Informal Screening)
This documentary follows the French football team on their way to victory in the 1998 World Cup in France. Stéphane Meunier spent the whole time filming the players, the coach and some other important characters of this victory, giving us a very intimate view of them, as if we were with them
Please note that Community Activities will be available on the Riverside terrace throughout the day on Saturday.
Cash bar and kiosk food will also be available throughout.
Over 18's only.