As the owner of both the NHL’s Capitals and the NBA’s Wizards, Ted Leonsis (COL `77) just may be the biggest professional sports fan in Washington. While both teams are beginning their seasons, neither team will be the topic of conversation when Leonsis comes to campus next Tuesday. The occasion for his return is a screening of the film Kicking It in Gaston Hall. The documentary, produced by Leonsis earlier this year, tells the story of seven soccer players participating in a tournament in South Africa in 2006. There is one very significant difference between these players and those that will descend on Cape Town for the World Cup in 2010, however: they are all homeless.
The idea of the Homeless World Cup was born in 2001 after an International Network of Street Papers conference in South Africa. The dream, a four-on-four street soccer-style tournament featuring the best homeless players from around the world, was realized two years later in Austria, where the host country emerged victorious from a field of 18 nations. The sixth cup is set to take place in Australia early next month, this time with 56 nations participating, including the first ever all-female teams. Open tryouts were held in D.C. this summer on the same weekend D.C. United took on David Beckham and the LA Galaxy.
Kicking It was filmed during the fourth Homeless World Cup in South Africa. Writer/director Susan Koch chronicles the experiences of seven players hailing from six different countries including Kenya, Afghanistan, and the United States. Each player has his own story, from Danny, the heroin addict from Dublin, to Najib, who fled the Taliban in Afghanistan. ESPN picked up distribution and exclusive television rights to the documentary even before it appeared at Sundance last January, and actor Colin Farrell signed on to narrate the film. In an interview with ESPN.com’s Sam Alipour, Leonsis coined the term “filmanthropy” to describe his hopes for this and future documentary projects.
“We’ve been pursuing a concept called filmanthropy, using film and other media platforms to catalyze social change and actively give back to society,” he said. “The players, the people involved, they’re beautiful people. I know they’ve affected me, personally.”
Both Leonsis and Koch will attend Tuesday’s 6 p.m. screening, sponsored by the Georgetown University Library Associates and the Masters in Sports Industry Management Program. A question and answer session will follow.
While Kicking It was well-received at Sundance, it garnered mixed reviews after its release in June. The New York Times criticized it for being “short on surprise and relevance beyond its basic social service function.” After Tuesday, students can judge the film’s artistic merits for themselves. But as for the tournament itself, its success is undeniable. The program’s website, which keeps track of its participants even after the tournaments end, reports that of the thousands of participants, nearly 73 percent have beaten their addictions, found jobs, or reunited with families and are living better lives. As the saying goes, sometimes it’s just a game. Clearly, though, sometimes it’s a little more.
