FBM Interview Series: The Makers of “Pelada”
Planting the Seed of Soccer Across America: Danny Beerseed
(Editor's Note: After its world-premiere at the South By Southwest Music and Film Festival “Pelada” is blowing up across the nation at variety of film festivals and movie theaters. Tonight the movie makes its Los Angeles premiere! Hollywood, baby! Follow the movie on Facebook, Twitter, or their website for locations and showing in your area.)
It's the morning after the world-premiere of their movie at the South By Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival in Austin, Texas. The stars and filmmakers of “Pelada” still have that glow about them that proud parents of a newborn and newlyweds carry on even after the big day has passed them by.
The four of them chuckle. The ice is broken.
I don't go to the bathroom.
Gwedolyn and Luke are the focus of the movie. Rebekah and Ryan stay behind the camera. Both played soccer in college; Gwendolyn for Duke and Luke for Notre Dame. They're faced with the daunting truth that their soccer careers are coming to a screeching halt. They're at a sporting fork-in-the-road and neither of the paths say professional soccer.

Despite their normal-ness their journey is anything but. For the viewer and the soccer fan it's one stunning shot and amazing story after another. The movie is like a fantastic soccer match in itself; end-to-end action leaving one extremely satisfied.
“Interesting situations bring out interesting stories and interesting characters,” Fergusson says when I ask whether or not they purposely sought out the fascinating and, sometimes, dangerous storylines that are included in the film.
“We just wanted intense stories,” Oxenham follows up.
So then it was almost unavoidable for the four of them to be involved in such places as violent barrios in Argentina, a Bolivian prison, and a co-ed game in Iran.
“That's where the good games were. In the Bolivian prison that's where the best players were in La Paz. They've got all the time in the world,” Luke Boughen explains.

“It was like the chicken and the egg. Did the adrenaline or the game come first?” White asks out loud.
The truly difficult parts were not if the four could find enough stories to fill their moving, but which ones would make the final product.
“At the end of the day it's still like a piece of art to translate the experience to something that people can digest,” says Fergusson. “It was really hard. The four of us collaborating and arguing and debating.”
In the end the filmmakers' goal was to make a movie that both soccer fans and non-soccer fans could both appreciate.
Oxenham says, “It was always important doe us to not have it be a soccer movie just use soccer as a vehicle to tell these other stories.”
“I think we know, for the most part, that we'll have the soccer crowd. I think the most rewarding comments are going to come from people who don't like soccer.” White adds.
“Pelada” is movie that satisfies multiple angles.

And Fergusson delves deeper into their mission, “To be able to show the world that Americans play and to bring it (the movie) back and show the U.S. this deep passion that exists outside in all these countries.”
But in the end the movie is going to most satisfy those people who love the game as deeply as the filmmakers do.
When it was suggested that their movie may have saved my marriage I wasn't just looking for an ice breaker, but hinting that one of “Pelada's” most enduring messages might be that it helps explain the sport's attraction for millions upon millions of people across the globe to those who might never “get it”.
For someone who's love of soccer is often viewed as an oddity or mystery to my friends and family the power of persuasion that “Pelada” has could be summed up when my wife said to me, “I may never get everything about soccer, the offsides rule, but tonight I get you a little bit more.”
“I had a conversation with a guy whose wife came with him to the screening and she's like 'I don't get it, I don't like soccer, I never go to his games, but now I get it. I understand now more of what it's all about and why he loves it.'” Oxenham tells me.
“We've had a few people come up to us and say that I didn't want to go to this movie; I was dragged here by brother, father, someone and I'm so glad that I did.”
Much like surfers have “Endless Summer” to show others just what makes them tick inside, now, perhaps, American soccer fans have “Pelada” to communicate and, hopefully, pass on their passion and dedication to others near and dear in their lives.
A suggestion that White finds, simply, “cool”.
Read PART 2 of our interview with the “Pelada” crew where they talk about the global appeal of, what else, beer.
Tags: Six-Pack Interview Series, Twelve-Pack Interview Series
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