Sadly, there will be no live football on Saturday, April 18, but there will be a Football Scholars Forum!
At 2pm Eastern (7pm in London), FSF welcomes Tom McCabe, a historian, and Kirk Rudell, a Hollywood writer and producer, for a Zoom session on their film “Soccertown USA.” It was released last week on YouTube and is freely available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=havPy5C2XIU.
In the 1870s, Scottish immigrants brought soccer to Kearny, New Jersey. A few years later, they brought it to Brazil. While the game was spreading across Europe and South America, it was being played in the streets, parks, and playgrounds of a small town just across the meadows from New York City . . . but a world away. And in the 1980s, when the flame of American soccer was flickering, it was three kids from Kearny who helped save it.
“Soccertown USA” is the story of Tab Ramos, John Harkes, and Tony Meola, who grew up with a passion for the game in a country that didn’t share it. It’s the story of the USA team at the 1990 and 1994 World Cups, when these childhood friends formed the backbone of a team that willed its way to famous victories and inspired the generations that would come after. But it’s also the story of a town – an American town – in which we can see the past, the present, and the future of the world’s game.
“Soccertown USA” premiered last year at the Kicking + Screening Soccer Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award. Join the writers and producers for a lively discussion about making soccer documentaries, from writing the script to interviewing subjects, and from taking it to film festivals to looking for distribution and using it in our teaching.
RSVP to Peter Alegi (@futbolprof) or Alex Galarza (@galarzaalex) by April 16.
