Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival 2010

Away from professional stadiums, bright lights, and manicured fields, there’s another side of soccer. Tucked away on alleys, side streets, and concrete courts, people play in improvised games. Every country has a different word for it. In the United States, we call it pick-up soccer. In Trinidad, it's 'taking a sweat.' In England, it's 'having a kick-about.' In Brazil, the word is “pelada,†which literally means 'naked'—the game stripped down to its core. It’s the version of the game played by anyone, anywhere.Pelada is a documentary following Luke and Gwendolyn, two former college soccer stars who didn’t quite make it to the pros. Not ready for it to be over, they take off around the world, chasing the game—the global phenomenon spanning gender, race, religion, and class. The film tells the stories of the players they meet along the way.At San Pedro Prison in Bolivia, an inmate says, “Here we have nothing. Our life is to play.†In Nairobi, a moonshine brewer confides, “Down here, everybody thinks you’re just another drunkard, but then when you get to the field, people say, ‘Oh, that person can play.’†A day after a terrorist attack, Arabs and Jews occupy the same court in Jerusalem but refuse to play on the same team, saying, “There are people who act like football is above politics but this is bullshit.†From women in hijab playing in Tehran, to eighty-year-olds who play barefoot in Brazil, Pelada is the story of the people who play.