We began our 2018 session with two documentary films from Megan Shutzer and Alex Galarza.
Megan’s film, “New Generation Queens“, tells the story of Zanzibar’s women’s soccer team, the New Generation Queens. The movie examines the history and culture around women’s soccer in Zanzibar. It also follows the team to mainland Tanzania, where the Queens participate in a tournament for the first time and several hope to be recruited to the Tanzanian national team.
Alex co-produced his film, “Ciudad Deportiva – El Documental“, with four Argentine journalists. It tells the story of Boca Juniors’ attempt to build a massive stadium and sports/recreational complex in the1960s. The documentary focuses on the history of this project and the fascinating links between soccer and the city.
Alex and Megan began by sharing their experiences of making their first films. Both took time to explain how they worked collaboratively with the people featured in the documentaries. Questions from the group touched on the technical aspects of filmmaking, storytelling techniques, and the process of distributing the documentaries. Additional themes covered were audience reception, the positionality of filmmakers, gender and sexuality, and the politics of sport.
Participants included: Peter Alegi, Melissa Forbis, Andrew Guest, Jessica Kessler, Itamar Dubinsky, Shawn Stein, Javier Pescador, Tom McCabe, and Danyel Reiche
A recording of the February 23 session can be found here. (For personal and educational use only.) Apologies for the sketchy quality of the audio at the beginning; it improves noticeably around the 20 minute mark.
