TRAILER: "Foosballers," award-winning documentary film, to be released in February

Get ready to FOOOOOOOOS!!!!

The award-winning documentary Foosballers, which won the Golden Whistle at the 2019 K+S Soccer Film Festival, has released its official trailer.

The film is coming to select theaters on February 11 (more info to come soon) and to VOD streaming platforms on February 13.

Directed by Joe Heslinga, Foosballers takes a deep dive into the underground world of professional table soccer, following six of the top players as they prepare for the Tornado World Championships. Through an ensemble cast of quirky characters and obsessive fans, the film explores the sport's rich and relatively unknown history -- from its meteoric rise in the 1970s during the Million Dollar Pro Tour, to its devastating collapse in the ‘80s, to its resurgence today.

FOOSBALLERS

Pull Shot Productions in Association with Cascia Films present a film by Joe Heslinga

Written / Directed / Produced / Edited by: Joe Heslinga
Written and Produced by: Mike Wagstaffe
Cinematography and Produced by: Logan Cascia

Featuring:

• Todd Loffredo

• Tony Spredeman

• Ryan Moore

• Robert Mares

• Terry Rue

• Cindy Head

• Sullivan Rue

• Kelsey Cook

• Mike Bowers

• Jim Stevens

• Kathy Brainard

• Johnny Lott

• Frédéric Collignon

• Doug Furry

• Tommy Adkisson

• Lee Peppard

• Mary Moore

• Brendan Flaherty

• Tom Yore

• Charles Mackintosh

• Dave Gummeson

• Tracy McMillin

• Tony Bacon

Official film website: FoosballersMovie.com

Watch "Celtic Soul" on VOD streaming platforms

The Kicking + Screening Media Group’s debut film, Celtic Soul, starring comedian Jay Baruchel and soccer journalist Eoin O'Callaghan is available in the United States on multiple VOD streaming platforms.

Celtic Soul, which screened at the 2017 K+S Soccer Film Festival in New York follows Jay and Eoin on a quest to see Scottish club Celtic FC in Glasgow. Hilarious and poignant, it’s a story that spans 200 years of colorful history as the duo visit Jay’s ancestral home of Westport, Ireland, and then continue on to Glasgow, where they finally get to see Celtic FC play at their famed stadium, Celtic Park.

Directed by Michael McNamara and produced by Markham Street Films, Celtic Soul is available in the United States on the following platforms: iTunes, Amazon Prime, GooglePlay, Vudu, Sony Playstation, Comcast, Spectrum, Cox, Verizon, Frontier, Brighthouse, Dish, and DIRECTV.

The DVD is also available for purchase on Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy. 

“Markham Street Films is delighted that our film Celtic Soul will be part of the launch of the Kicking + Screening Media Group,” Markham Street Films Aaron Hancox and Judy Holm said. “Their experience and expertise are just what we were looking for to bring Celtic Soul to US audiences.”

“Celtic Soul is the perfect film to start with,” K+S Media Group’s Rachel Markus said. “You don't have to love the club Celtic or even the sport of soccer to appreciate the friendship, the journey, and the humbling nature of making it to one of the game’s hallowed grounds.”

Celtic Soul was the first film to be distributed by KSMG. Additional films available via our new K+S Media Group streaming channel include previous festival favorites Soka Afrika and Messi & Me, among others.

Watch the Trailer for Celtic Soul below!

TALKBACK: Longtime soccer filmmaker Justin Webster

Justin Webster doesn't make soccer films solely, but he is one of the most prolific soccer filmmakers in the world, having directed FC Barcelona Confidential (2004), The Ref (2009), and WIN! (2016). His films have appeared at K+S festivals twice. His current project is the Amazon Prime series Six Dreams, about La Liga.

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K+S: What makes the game (or business) of soccer such a fertile area for storytelling and filmmaking

WEBSTER: For me, it’s most interesting for the family of films called observational, or vérité. Sport, especially team sport, provides a time frame where you can predict an outcome, or ending. Meanwhile, there are inevitably things at stake. A team sport means everyone has multiple relations, often intense. All that makes it at least a viable context for crafting a story a dramatic, human story. The dangers, however, are that it can slip into a catalogue of winning and losing, long on clichés, with no meaning. But as vérité films are very risky and anti-industrial by nature, at least you start with some things in your favour.

K+S: What makes it so challenging to capture the action on the field?

WEBSTER: I think the action on the field is the least interesting aspect of football films. It’s great in small doses as punctuation, and it takes on a totally new meaning if you have the backstory (which is the real story).

K+S: What is your favorite soccer film, and why?

WEBSTER: Les Yeux Dans Les Bleus, probably, for the scene of Zidane after he is sent off in the 1998 World Cup. That was the inspiration for my soccer films. Hoop Dreams, though not a soccer film, is an even bigger influence.

K+S: You’ve worked with many star players and coaches. Who is the one that really impressed you and why?

WEBSTER: Amaia Gorostiza, the president of Eibar, the tiny Basque club that is a miracle of La Liga. You have to watch Six Dreams to see why she's so impressive.

K+S: What soccer story would you love to tell?

WEBSTER: The one I am working on: the second season of Six Dreams. To go deeper into the characters.

TALKBACK: Soccer film expert Jan Tilman Schwab

German historian Jan Tilman Schwab is the world's foremost academic writer on soccer films and the author of Fußball im Film – Lexikon des Fußballfilms ("Football in Films – Lexicon of Football Films").

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K+S: What makes a film a “soccer film”?

JTS: In a narrow definition, the film would need to deal with football as its main theme/plot line. In a broader definition that I used for my lexicon, a film could also deal with soccer in an elaborate sub plot or even in its subtext (if stringent). As an example, Trainspotting has three brilliant soccer motives in its plot -- but not enough for me to call it a soccer movie.

K+S: What makes the game of soccer so good for film?

JTS: The passion for soccer can sometimes be transported to the screen, for as football fan and cinéaste it couldn't be better...

K+S: What are the best examples of a “soccer film”?

JTS: Zidane, as an art film, and Fever Pitch, as fan-fiction comedy at its best.

K+S: There are relatively few fictional soccer films. Why is it so difficult to make a good fictional soccer film?

JTS: The reproduction of soccer for a fictional film is difficult. You need good actors/footballers. You have to recreate an authentic big crowd. And you have to reproduce gameplay -- usually without a big budget and/or digital trick techniques. Altogether, this is hardly achievable.

K+S: If you could make a soccer film right now, what story would you tell?

JTS: A serial killer takes out one German referee after another... because they are screwing up my beloved Bayern Munich this season! No, all kidding aside, any good story that creates characters full of love for this sport who get into situations where they follow their passion encountering obstacles from the "real" world should work.

Jan Tilman Schwab, left, at the 11-mm Fussballfilmfestival in Berlin in 2013.

TALKBACK: Catching up with "Soka Afrika" producer Simon Laub

We recently released the powerful documentary Soka Afrika to stream. K+S caught up with Soka Afrika producer Simon Laub in between an adventure in Las Vegas and a business trip to the 2019 Toronto Film Festival.

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K+S: What drew you to the story of Soka Afrika?

LAUB: Myself, Suridh Hassan, his partner Ryo Sanada, and my partner Sam Potter came across a couple articles in the news about young African kids who were aspiring footballers turning up in Europe and being abandoned. Being interested in the subject we all started researching and seeing what we could find.

The more we looked the more we couldn’t believe what we were seeing.

The first tip of the iceberg was when we discovered Jean Claude Mbvoumin’s name as head of an NGO called Culture Foot Solidaire, who seemed to be the only ones who were visible and pragmatically doing something about the issue. We contacted him, and before actually meeting, decided we had to get to the bottom of what was going on. And the best way to do that was to make a doc.

K+S: What were some of the challenges you encountered during filming?

LAUB: The biggest challenge in making a documentary of this nature is trust. It's crucial to spend enough time with the people you are filming for everyone to get comfortable and ideally to start to forget there is a camera on them, especially in a sporting situation. It's natural to be defensive or guarded, especially given our subject matter, and I think it helped us a lot that it was clear to everyone involved that we were trying to do a positive thing in exposing a huge negative to public scrutiny and debate.

We also allowed a long time filming: over 2 yrs, to catch aftereffects of the World Cup and to allow the characters to develop and the story to breathe. Ndomo and all the other boys we met, Jean Claude and Kermit all understood that this story is important and desperately needs attention, media and resources. Trafficking in football is still happening right now! We unfortunately expected that 10 years later FIFA would have delivered some or any of their promises shown in our film by Sepp Blatter in the hilariously titled “Conference for Hope” in South Africa in the run up to the 2010 World Cup. But it's the system that needs to change, and I don’t think its in their interest.

Kermit Erasmus, one of the stars of Soka Afrika, playing with South Africa’s national team.

K+S: The two main characters of the film, Kermit Erasmus (pictured above) and Ndomo Sabo (pictured below), were up-and-coming talents at the time of the film. Today, Kermit is still playing, starring for Cape Town FC and BAFANA BAFANA in South Africa. What about Ndomo?

LAUB: Ndomo is happy. He is happily married with kids in London, where he now lives. But he is, unfortunately, retired from football. At the end of the film, we see Ndomo sign for Spanish club Deportivo la Coruña. He played successfully for them for almost a season. Then, sadly, he was badly injured at Deportivo and forced into early retirement.

Ndomo Sabo, one of the stars of Soka Afrika, when he was healthy and playing professionally.

K+S: Since the film was released, what, if anything, has changed for African players being brought to Europe?

LAUB: Honestly, it's impossible to know definitively, but I would wager that very, very little has changed. You don’t have to look much farther than the recent ban and non-ban of Chelsea and Manchester City, respectively. If you analyse the situation, you see that they both signed many of the top players from Africa as well as other countries who are younger than 18. How? What was the consequence?

K+S: You are a big footy fan yourself. What club do you support and why?

LAUB: I support the glorious champions of Europe -- Liverpool. Honestly, I had no choice. My Dad took me and my older brother to the FA Cup Final, Liverpool vs Everton. I was very young. We won. My brother already supported them. I was along for a lifetime. I'm very happy about it obviously (now), but having lived in London until I was 35 years old, all my angry Londoner friends can’t handle it.

K+S: If you could make a soccer film right now, what story would you tell?

LAUB: If I could, I would probably make a film about a ragtag group of Sunday league footballers who beat all the odds and managed to make history. It would probably be called Holy Mount Zion.