I'm sure someone will find a way to twist the following statement to make me look like a prick or self-hating negro but here it is anyway: I'm tired of seeing soccer movies about poor, brown people.
Documentary makers, you know we're not a monolith right? There are well-to-do brown folks that play soccer as well. Bring your cameras down to a youth game in PG County, MD or Cascade Heights, GA if you don't believe me. Also there are disadvantaged Europeans and Asians who play soccer as well, give them some shine from time to time.
I'm not saying there shouldn't be films about underprivileged brown kids and the uplifting power of soccer. Not at all. But the frequency with which these things have dropped over the last few years is just ridiculous and extremely disproportionate. Here's a list of the titles that I can think of without Googling:
- Chasing the Mad Lion
- The Anderson Monarchs project
- Dreamtown
- The Day Brazil Was Here
- Africa 10
- Bush League
Seriously y'all we're dangerously close to "Magical Negro" territory with these types of films. Why do they keep getting made? At this point it is certainly not original and I've yet to see a follow up film where it shows some drastic improvement in the lives of the subjects since the original film. Come on y'all, we can do better.
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