Blind Date Sparked Film Festival

When Greg Lalas got set up on a blind date in April by some mutual friends with a woman who shared two of his biggest passions -- soccer and writing -- little did he know what the future would hold. Although that date at a bar in the Chelsea section of Manhattan didn't exactly lead to romance with Rachel Markus, the two did end up seeing a lot more of each other.

As the pair chatted, Markus told Lalas of her attempt to stage a soccer-themed film festival at London's Craven Cottage -- home to Fulham of the Premier League -- while she was living in England. A week before it was set to take place, the screening was canceled.

But as Lalas and Markus, who works in the film industry, talked that April night, the idea of staging a soccer film festival in the United States came up and thus the Kicking & Screening International Soccer Film Festival was born.

"It was pure serendipity," said Lalas, who works as the analyst on New England Revolution games among other media capacities. "Granted, it was a very different kind of serendipity."

The first Kicking & Screening took place in New York City in July. The second edition runs Oct. 15-18 in Washington.

"The two of us put it together in three months," Lalas said of the first event. "We had no idea what we were doing or had gotten into, but we had a blast kind of making it up on the spot. We felt this was the time for soccer to start taking a bigger role as its culturally significance grew in the U.S."

Lalas says the New York event was a rousing success, with all five nights of the festival selling out.

"The success (in New York) was basically the fact that it was a grassroots thing," said Lalas, who also hosts the weekly MLS Extra Time webcast . "I told Rachel, we don't know how big this will be. Even if we have to do it in my living room, it'll still be the festival."

Buoyed by the success of the New York event, Lalas looked south to the nation's capital for the next festival. Though Washington isn't exactly in his backyard, Lalas figured it would be the perfect place for the event due to its long and rich soccer history from the youth level on up to D.C. United.

As luck would have it, the week of the festival is preceded by the U.S. national team's final 2010 CONCACAF qualifier on Oct. 14 vs. Costa Rica at venerable RFK Stadium. On Saturday Oct. 17, D.C. United hosts defending MLS champion Columbus Crew in an important game for playoff seeding. (United is currently on the outside looking in.)

Lalas hopes that soccer will be on the brain during the week and translate toward increased eyeballs on the festival.

"When we put it all together and thought this could be the perfect storm of soccer in DC," he said. "We hope that we're a part of it."

Following the United game Saturday, the festival will host a midnight screening of the classic, "Victory" at the E Street Cinema.

"We didn't want to tramp on D.C. United," Lalas said of deciding on a midnight screening. "It's the most classic soccer movie of all time. I'm not sure how many people have seen it on the big screen with Sylvester Stallone screaming and yelling and that beautiful bicycle kick at the end larger than life."

While "Victory" is probably the most well-known soccer film of all time -- it stars Pele after all -- it will be preceded at the Kicking & Screening festival by a pair of culturally important documentaries.

On Oct. 15, the 1998 behind-the-scenes documentary "Les Yeux dans les Bleus" about Frances World Cup triumph on home soil will be screened at the French Embassy.

"It is awesome," Lalas said. "It's totally behind the scenes. When (Zinedine) Zidane gets a red card in the second group game (vs. Saudi Arabia), they're in the locker room and its Zidane and the cameraman. You can see the disappointment and frustration. In the context of 2006, it's even magnified."

The next night "Sons of Sakhnin United" will be shown. It tells the story of a mostly Arab team that plays in the Israeli Premier League.

"It's about a life in their life and the difficulties of being an Arab in Israel," Greg Lalas said. "There's a wonderful moment in the film when a player is called in for the national team. It's an incredible lens on the conflict that exists in Israel. This is not Lebanon or Iran vs. Israel. This is Israelis vs. Israelis and how the players deal with it."

The film will be preceded by a soccer-themed poetry reading featuring Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl and former U.S. national team players John Harkes and Alexi Lalas, brother of Greg Lalas. Lalas' mother -- Anne Woodworth -- is a poet and some of her work will be read.

"It's going to be typical Kicking & Screening," Lalas said. "I'm not sure what it'll be, but it'll be fun."

The final film is a departure, from the documentaries in terms of levity. On Sunday morning, the festival will screen the kid-centric, "The Big Green."

"Part of the festival, in our mind, there's a social contract that we should do things for our fans," Lalas said. "There are a lot of kids out there, let's see if it works."

One aspect that Lalas figures will remain so long as Kicking & Screening exists (there have been talks of future events in Western Massachusetts or possibly even South Africa next year), it will continue to work toward charity. Lalas says the event will always carry a social initiative. The Washington event is partnered with America Scores, a national program that uses soccer to help build social and academic skills in urban youth, along with United for DC -- DC United's charitable arm -- which promotes literacy.

Away from the film festival, Lalas says the biggest story to watch as the MLS playoffs are set to begin next month are the Los Angeles Galaxy, specifically the play of a certain David Beckham. (The Galaxy are currently two points behind Columbus for the No. 1 overall seed.)

"Beckham is playing the best soccer since he arrived," Lalas said. "Actually for the first time since he's become a leader on that team, to the point where when he's not playing you can feel a leadership vacuum and that says a lot. He's coming to terms that it matters how he plays on this team. He's taking pride in it. Their run will be fun to watch."

While Beckham was famously cited in the title of "Bend it Like Beckham," Lalas thinks films like that have helped soccer's cultural relevance in the United States grow, he doesn't think that the great American soccer film has been made.

"Right now 'Victory' is the cream of the crop," he said. "We don't have our, "The Natural" or "North Dallas Forty" yet."

Still he hopes that Kicking and Screening can help change that fact and also serve as a de facto endorsement of blind dates.

"That's why you go on blind dates," he said. "You never know what might end up happening. It could be the worst thing in the world, or end up a lifelong endeavor."

For more information, visiting the Kicking & Screening website.