The Opposition. Directed by Ezra Edelman & Jeff Plunkett

Transcription

1 Mountainfilm Movies That Matter 2014 Educational Materials The Opposition Page 1 The Opposition Directed by Ezra Edelman & Jeff Plunkett The Opposition shows the overthrow of democratically elected Chilean President Salvador Allende from a new perspective. This time, the eyes looking at this horror of history belong to the men of the 1974 Chilean national soccer team, who, as public figures, had to walk a careful line of private outrage at the coup and subsequent crackdown by General Augusto Pinochet. This short documentary is directed for ESPN s 30 for 30 series by Ezra Edelman and Jeff Plunkett.

2 Discussing the Film: Mountainfilm Movies That Matter 2014 Educational Materials The Opposition Page 2 The following questions are intended to spark discussion and activities related to both the content and storytelling elements of this particular film. 1. What images and sounds stick with you the most from The Opposition? 2. Do you think that Carlos Caszely, the famous Chilean striker, is the main character of the film? Do you think this film needs a main character? 3. Did the film bring up any feelings for you while watching it? Write a one-sentence summary of The Opposition. 4. In 2014, Brazil another South American country, with one of the world s largest homeless populations and many other public needs spent $11.3 billion dollars of public works funding to construct 12 new stadiums for the World Cup. What do you think about the relationship between sports and politics in South America? 5. Despite reports from players and media members that there were political prisoners being held and tortured in the Chilean soccer stadium in 1974, FIFA (the international governing board of soccer) found nothing and allowed the game to continue. How and why do you think that happened? 6. In the film, Carlos Caszely speaks about his mother being tortured, and refuses to shake Chilean Dictator Augusto Pinochet s hand. If you were in his situation, what would you do? 7. Chile made it to the 1974 World Cup, but failed to win one match. Do you think the political situation in their country had anything to do with the team losing? Can you remember an example of when you performed poorly because of a distracting situation in your life? 8. In The Opposition, the Chilean National Team members talk about how important the team color rioja (red) was to the identity of the team. After the stadium housed political prisoners in 1974, the color became negatively associated with blood. In the U.S. today, the Redskins NFL football team faces a related controversy, with many Native American and human rights groups calling for a change to the long-time name based on its current racist context. Do you think the Redskins should have to change their name? Do you think Chile should have changed its colors? How do symbols matter to us in sports and what do they represent? Extensions:

3 Page 3 1. WATCH: Visit ESPN s website for more 30 for 30 documentaries, where you can watch some of the documentaries streaming: 2. WATCH: Filmmaker Ezra Edelman s Peabody Award-winning film about basketball legends Larry Bird and Magic Johnson on YouTube: 3. READ: An article about the money that Brazil spent in the most recent 2014 FIFA World Cup and what will happen to the stadiums now that the World Cup is finished: features/were-the-billions-brazil-spent-on-world-cup-stadiums-worth-it/. Filmmaker Conversation: Ezra Edelman, co-director of The Opposition Where did you get the idea for this film? Ezra: Actually, we knew that ESPN was doing a soccer series and we knew they were looking for stories that took place in Latin America. We got the idea inspired by David Goldblatt s book, The Ball is Round. It is the definitive book of soccer history. This story was a small anecdote in the book, showing the weirdness of that game Chile played against no opposition. We found the clip of them going down the field and scoring against no opponent. We wanted to do a feature-length film. It was a huge story about Chile, and you could only scratch the surface about what was happening politically. We didn t know how much footage would be available to us, but we found out it was the 40 th anniversary and knew that there would be something current about this story. What was the filming process like? Ezra: Literally everything was shot over the course of a week in Santiago, Chile, last September. I m a history person and I loved the story. Four months later was the 40 th anniversary of the coup, and there was a World Cup game in that stadium on that day. We had to go back for that. We were dealing with a language difference in the interviews, but Caszely was one person that we knew we d focus on based on his stardom and his defiance in the face of Pinochet. His teammate, Leonardo Veliz, was the one revelation. Everything out of his mouth was a beautiful philosophical statement about what was happening. They were not victims, not in the same way of the political prisoners, but they were still caught up in something that stripped them of their youth. How important is futbol (soccer) to Chile s identity as a country? Ezra: It s not overstating to say futbol in every South American country is a religion. It s a huge fundamental unifying thing. It s bizarre to me that this stadium, where all this took place in the 70 s,

4 Page 4 still looks the same. Obviously, people who are under thirty are not thinking about that history. They re just thinking about their national team. This story is only powerful because soccer has this level of importance in their society. That s why we had to shoot the game in the stadium today. It speaks to the power of the story. How important was the scene where the futbol players talk about scoring a goal on no opponent? What does that do for the story in the film? Ezra: It almost felt like this bizarre circumstance was what originally got us interested. How did a game get played without an opponent? Placing them in that scene speaks to the bizarre surrealness of that moment in time. It also speaks to what it means to be an athlete; to be an athlete means to engage in competition. To be put in a position where the team had already qualified for the World Cup, but FIFA made them go through that charade, was about the powerlessness of their situation. That moment should be the culmination of their lives, but they were going to represent a country that they were not aligned with politically. These players were just kids. Caszely and Veliz were the most political on the team, but there were plenty of people on the team who weren t in support of Allende when he came to power. So when Pinochet took power they wanted to believe the propaganda he was selling to them. Meanwhile, Veliz s uncle and cousin were actually imprisoned in the stadium he was playing in! The players were caught in the middle of this storm. How hard is it to tell a story that implicates the US in murder? Ezra: It s easy if you re not really dealing with it. This is a perfect example of the criticism we got on the piece. It s a history lesson but in small part, we re shedding light. If the film can show you that Richard Nixon and Kissinger were implicit in this story, then we ve done our job for a new generation of people who may not know about this story. It s an angle we would ve pursued if we had more time. All those Nixon-Kissinger meetings are now public record. You can listen to all of them today online. Do you feel like there are parallels between the national unrest in Chile in 1974 World Cup and Brazil in this 2014 Cup? Ezra: Not specifically. What was happening with Chile s military dictatorship in 74 is not happening in Brazil. The killing and imprisonment are not happening. But in terms of having interests that are aside from the people, it s relevant. They ve spent all this money to build all these stadiums when that money could be going to education and other things in the country that people actually need. That s about business interests. People in Rio were removed from their homes to build that stadium. It s the same as holding a World Cup game in that stadium in 74 to show the world that everything was fine in Chile, when it wasn t. The worldwide spectacle that FIFA and the Brazilian government create is analogous. I don t want to make a 1:1 comparison, but economic interests are always going to win out.

5 Page 5 Do you think the film has had an impact? Do you feel it was successful? Ezra: It s not for me to judge. I m not a filmmaker with an agenda. The audiences that I met were educated and liked it. I was happy with how it turned out. We were able to tell that story. The character development suffers and I think there s a bigger story there to tell. It was great that ESPN, to their credit, empowered us to tell a soccer story that isn t really about soccer. Absolutely. I want people to be engaged and absorb a good story. What advice would you give to a student who wants to get into filmmaking? Ezra: Do it. I think, for me, I didn t grow up wanting to make movies. I m not technically trained; I didn t go to film school. I learned from telling stories. I would say, everyone can do this. It s not an easy thing to do, in the sense that it takes brains and perseverance, but anyone that has a directed interest and work ethic can do this. I m not trying to diminish anything we do. You need help and there s a learning curve. My only advice is to be prepared and informed when dealing with the world. Learn about other people s perspectives before you go out there and engage them with a camera in your hand. What s your next project? Ezra: I m shooting a five-hour long film about O. J. Simpson for ESPN. It will be a tough eleven months of shooting, but it s an exciting project. It will be out next fall. It s complicated, but relevant, especially with stuff that s coming up in the NFL today.