Feb. 7, 2011
NOTRE DAME, Ind. –
Members of the Notre Dame men’s and women’s soccer teams enjoyed a super start to their Sunday, as the Monogram Club hosted a breakfast reception for the student-athletes in the Monogram Room which featured a lecture and discussion by the creators of the film “Pelada” – Luke Boughen ’05 (soccer) and former Duke soccer student-athlete Gwendolyn Oxenham.
The Monogram Club also invited the student-athletes to a special screening of the film on Friday night in the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.
“Pelada” is a documentary that follows Boughen and Oxenham on their journey around the world, examining the role that pick-up soccer plays in shaping cultures and building relationships. The word “pelada” literally means “naked” in Brazilian, and refers colloquially to soccer in its simplest form and as a way to bring people together.
“Soccer is a shared experience that lets you get to know people you wouldn’t otherwise meet,” said Oxenham, who earned her master’s degree in creative writing from Notre Dame in 2006. “As soon as people from other cultures see you can play, you’re welcomed and invited into their home for meal. It’s really special, and we wanted to make a movie that was based on that exchange and tell a story through it. You hear so much about professional games, but the pick-up game is the forgotten part that has so much to offer.”
Boughen and Oxenham visited 25 countries during the filming process and joined make-shift soccer matches with people in a multitude of settings, including inmates in a Bolivian prison and construction workers at a World Cup stadium site in South Africa.
While traveling on a limited budget, Boughen and Oxenham used Facebook and other social media to make contacts in other countries, find translators for their interviews and recruit house families for living arrangements and meals.
One of the most suspenseful portions of the film follows Oxenham and Boughen as they attempt to play in a pick-up game with a group of men in Iran. Oxenham spoke about how she was concerned at first because of how Iranian culture regards women, but the experience was one of the more eye-opening moments of their travels.
“The people of Iran are so different than the government,” Oxenham said. “Your perception of Iran comes solely from what you hear on the news. So we have a very skewed mindset, when in reality the Iranians are as friendly as the Brazilians. They’re so wonderful and nice, and none of the men had a problem with me playing.”
Throughout the presentation, the filmmaking duo spoke to the Irish student-athletes about the importance of not being afraid to use the skills they learned and perfected on the pitch during the transition process to their professional careers after Notre Dame.
“Soccer really opened doors for us,” Oxenham said. “When I was growing up, my club coach wanted us to love the sport, but he also wanted us to use it to take us places we wouldn’t have been able to go otherwise. Athletics gives you a certain mindset that a lot of people don’t have. The mentality of competing and getting it done does translate and it is something you can put into different things. So many of my former teammates are lawyers, doctors and CEOs, and we always talk about the fact that you’re still trying to win at what you do.”
Boughen also reflected on his time at Notre Dame and how his classes helped provide a perspective while travelling internationally during the filming of the movie.
“I was an anthropology student, so getting to see all these cultures around the world and using soccer as the lens to do that has been a great experience,” Boughen said. “I’d studied abroad while at Notre Dame, so getting that opportunity to see different parts of the world is what drove this project for me.”
Boughen and Oxenham have been screening “Pelada” at film festivals and on college campuses for the past year and are hoping to reach larger groups of people in the coming months to help spread the message about pick-up soccer and its effect on world cultures.
The concept of “Pelada” continues to ring true for Boughen and Oxenham, as the couple first met in at Notre Dame during a pick-up game in Rolfs Recreation Center. They were married in June 2010.
To find more information on the film – including trailers, DVD availability or how to make a tax-deductible donation – please click here.
–ND–