This week's #SoccerFilmFriday movie is "Celtic Soul," starring Jay Baruchel + Eoin O'Callaghan

Well, we're still here. Sheltering at home, staying socially distant, and wearing masks, yes, but still keeping our spirits up. At the very least, we have great soccer films to keep us company.

For this week's #SoccerFilmFriday, we're featuring the hilarious and touching travel story, Celtic Soul, starring Jay Baruchel.

A celebrated actor and comedian, Baruchel has an obsession with a sport and a team — far from home, in another continent: he is a massive fan of Glasgow’s Celtic Football Club. And like millions of fans around the world, Jay defies crazy distances and time differences to get his fix of European football.

How did Jay’s own obsession begin — and what is it about football that inspires such fanaticism in every far-flung corner of our globe?

Celtic Soul follows Jay on an epic road trip with his new friend, well-known Irish soccer journalist Eoin O’Callaghan, to find out.

This is a story that spans 200 years of colorful history and that will take the duo eastward from Montreal to Westport, Ireland — from where Jay’s ancestors set sail for Canada, like so many others — and finally Glasgow, where Jay will fulfill a lifelong dream: to watch a match at Celtic Park, one of the wildest and most hallowed grounds in world football.

Every Friday, we're watching soccer films. You should too!

These are strange times. Our lives have been thrown into a chaotic limbo punctuated by lockdowns, social distancing, and surgical masks. At the same time, it’s all taken on a very strong sense of mind-numbing repetition, like Bill Murray in “Groundhog Day.”

At K+S, we’re all trying to navigate this time as best we can. We’re all at home balancing work, children, and our sanity.

But we’ve still got soccer on the brain. So even if we’ve had to postpone K+S New York 2020 and there is no live soccer on TV, we can still do something to support the game. And, more importantly for us, to support independent soccer filmmakers:

We can watch their films.

That’s why we’ve launched the new #SoccerFilmFriday initiative. It's simple enough. Every Friday, we'll spotlight a film on our website, in our newsletter, and on our social media channels, and encourage you all to watch it.

#SoccerFilmFriday Schedule

• April 24: Messi & Me

• May 1: Football for Better or for Worse

• May 8: Celtic Soul | iTunes | Amazon Prime | Google Play

Please join us in supporting these great films. And we’ll schedule more in the coming weeks.

K+S Filmmaker Interview: Inger Molin's strong message about women footballers

(NOTE: This Q+A was originally published on May 10, 2018.)

Football for Better or for Worse follows FC Rosengård, one of the best women's teams in the world. Led by new sporting director Therese Sjögran and Brazilian star Marta, the club fights every day to lift the women’s game. Can they win?

Director Inger Molin discussed with Kicking + Screening the making of the film, the plight of women's soccer around the globe, and Marta's exceptional singing ability.

Football for Better or for Worse is now available to stream via the K+S Media Group website. Watch it now!

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K+S: How did you first come to the story of FC Rosengård and what appealed to you about telling it in a documentary?

I had lunch with the CEO of FC Rosengård, Klas Tjebbes, in January 2015. He had the year before left his job at an advertising agency after 25 years in the business. He always had his heart in football and felt confident that he could join the club and make a difference, using his PR skills to handle the tricky financial situation. After five months of hard work he realized that it was much more complex and harder than he had expected. He was tired. And he was angry, so upset about UEFA’s way of financially handling the Women Champions League. Their monetary contribution to the women teams didn’t at all even cover travel and hotel costs. In order for FC Rosengård to be able to attend the tournament, they needed to get financial support from the city of Malmö. UEFA gave 0.2 percent of the money to women teams, and 99.8% to the men. Outrageous...

When I told this story to a director of photography colleague of mine, Bill Watts, who works a lot with documentaries, he instantly felt that this is a story that we should tell. And with one of the best women players ever in the team, Marta, we could get attention to the important financial and gender structure issue.

K+S: What was your goal in making Football for Better or for Worse? Do you think it has had a positive effect on women’s football in Sweden? Around the world?

My goal was to get the message out, without portraying women footballers as victims. I wanted to show strong, passionate, and professional football players being treated unfair by just telling the fact of the weird distribution of money.

Young girls should have the same possibilities as young boys to choose the profession of being a football player. This wasn’t a possibility just 10 years ago, but now it is. And this is great. Things are changing for the better. Slowly.

The film was shown at national TV in Sweden during spring 2017, and available on their online Play - more than 130,000 viewers. At the same time, there was a public discussion going on regarding women football and economics. I hope our film contributed.

In making the film, I think the players felt they got seen, feeling that their story is important. Since the film got finalized, many players have left FC Rosengård, starting playing in other European clubs. In this way you could say that the ”spirit” of the film has spread internationally, the players are the best ambassadors. And when the film is being shown at sport film festivals, the message is also spread. This was my big goal with this project.

K+S: Football for Better or for Worse has a pretty specific point of view. Did you have that idea and those opinions when you started filming or did you come to them as you spent more time with the team?

The process started with anger, frustration about the unfairness of money within football. This feeling was confirmed during the production. But during the journey this feeling was mixed with the great passion for football the girls have. It got so clear to me, that there is no difference between woman and men footballers regarding this. And the inequality is not specific for football, it reflects the structure in society.

When screening the film for the first time at a big theater in Malmö, with many young girls footballers in the audience, it was a great feeling when they all looked so proud afterwards. This was a film with their role models, a film about them. And when a 20-year-old guy asked me if it was possible to get a poster of the film, the cool pic of Therese Sjögran, I really felt we had succeeded!

K+S: What’s the best story about Marta that didn’t make it into the film?

Marta is very dedicated in making a difference for women football. So she was definitely okay with us hanging around the pitch, following the team with our camera. But she is a very humble and shy person in public, and it was clear to us that she didn’t want to stand out from the team as some kind of superstar. I would say that all the things we got with Marta got into to final edit. My only disappointment was that we couldn’t use her singing when she played in the hotel lobby after the loss in the CL quarter final in Frankfurt. Marta has a good voice and she played a song of the Brazilian group Tribalistas. Due to rights issues, we had to make an alternative creative sound edit. Because I definitely wanted the scene in the film, since it was very emotional, coming close to Marta.

K+S: The World Cup is coming up this summer. Who ya got?

Haha… you mean the World Cup NEXT summer? There is a journalist in Sweden that calls our women's national team the "Real National team," the team that wins games! ;)

Seriously, I am not that into men's football but of course Brazil is always close to heart. And the small nation of Iceland is always a thrill to watch, speaking of strong team spirit.

The manager of the Swedish national team, Janne Andersson, is an old friend of mine and of course I wish him and our Swedish team all the best of luck. However, I am not sure that we will go all the way…! ;)

K+S Author Interview: Simon Doonan on Newcastle's jerseys and WAGS at the World Cup

Bon vivant and Barneys creative ambassador-at-large Simon Doonan knows him some fashion. He also knows him some soccer. This summer, his two passions come together in his latest book, SOCCER STYLE: The Magic and Madness. 

The cultural man about town chatted with Kicking + Screening about the best uniforms, the cult of uniformity, and and why bad taste is actually good.

Doonan talks soccer style, along with Shawn Francis, Lucas Shanks, and Calen Carr, on Wednesday, May 23. Get your tickets here.

Photo: Joe Gaffney

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K+S: Let’s get right to it: What’s your all-time favorite football jersey from a style perspective? Why?

Doonan: I am an Op-Art freak so I have to go with Newcastle, which means I also dig Juventus. Those black and white vertical stripes are a visual delight. From the players point of view these shirts are primo. They make every guy on the field look heroic and fierce. #flattering

I am also a fan of demented car-crash over-the-top shirts. I cheered when Norwich had their "egg and cress” moment. I loved the Arsenal “bruised banana” shirt in the 90’s. Not every shirt needs to be tasteful. As Diana Vreeland said, “Bad taste is a good thing. It’s like a nice splash of paprika."

K+S: Why do European footballers look so damn stylish all the time?

Doonan: European lads see vanity as a life-affirming thing, and they have a much easier relationship with designer clothing. The Brits still worry that spending too much time in Gucci is going to compromise their masculinity and cause their willies to fall off.

K+S: What’s your favorite football film? Why?

Doonan: I love an indie doc, but the mega documentary about Cristiano Ronaldo was revealing and quite melancholy. It offered a haunting glimpse into the psyche of a dude who is globally recognized but strangely unknowable.

K+S: The World Cup is coming up this summer. You ya got?

Doonan: A few months back Gareth Southgate announced that the WAGS would be welcome in Russia. They have been absent since the crazy days in Baden Baden back in 2006, when they generated hilarious press and major distraction. I am ready for a good WAG moment. It would take the edge off the anxious Russia situation… or maybe add to it.

K+S Filmmaker Interview: "Boniek et Platini" director Jeremie Laurent on the "insane part of football"

In the short film Boniek et Platini, two young Polish boys use soccer to take on the cops and battle martial law in the backdrop of the 1982 World Cup.

Director Jeremie Laurent chatted with Kicking + Screening about making the film, the difficulty of creating a "football" movie, and why France might win the World Cup.

Boniek et Platini screens at Kicking + Screening on Wednesday, May 23. Get tickets here.

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 K+S: What was the inspiration for making Boniek et Platini?

As a huge fan of football and history, I wanted to bring together both in order to show the football (and the sport in general) as a way to resist in world in conflict. Nowadays, football is synonym of big money: Who’s going to be the next most expensive player of the world? The spirit is slightly disappearing, and I think it is really important to react with this insane part of football.

K+S: What’s the most difficult part of making a “football" movie? Would you even consider Boniek et Platini a football movie?

I think Boniek et Platini can be considered as a football movie, yes, particularly for the French/Polish audience. This 82' World Cup in Spain was epic for both countries.

The most difficult part is how to show the sport? Where do I put my camera? Inside or outside the field? I watched a lot of football movies and every time the camera was inside, with the players. It immediately disturbed me.

I think we are conditioned to watch football with the multicam sports productions aesthetic: one master shot and different close up shots with long-focus lens. As soon as we are inside the field, it becomes unrealistic. That’s why I decided to shoot the game using the same shots of multicam; to stay outside, not enter the camera in the field and perturb the players.

K+S: The World Cup is this summer. Who ya got?

The French team has great young players. Many of them play in great clubs. We have a good chance to reach the semifinals probably. But the team lacks a leader, so…