NYU Abu Dhabi launches Kicking and Screening Football Film Festival

Featuring a line-up of five exceptional films about football, New York University Abu Dhabi will soon launch the Kicking and Screening Football Film Festival. Scheduled to run from March 12th - 14th, the festival aims to bring worldwide football culture to Abu Dhabi.
Set to unite football fans and celebrate the athleticism and passion of football games as captured on film, Kicking and Screening's opening night on March 12th will feature a documentary entitled "Blue Moon Rising", which follows five devoted Manchester City supporters through the 2009-10 campaign, the first season after its purchase and transformation into a Premier League superpower. By turns hilarious, dramatic, moving and uplifting, the film is an exhilarating examination of the power of football to move people and an authentic story of passion and undying faith in a club win, lose, or draw.
The line-up will include four additional films including "Will" (a family matinee feature film), and the documentaries "Soka Afrika", "Mission Tuvalu" and "Four Year Plan".
As a complement to the films, the Arts Centre, in collaboration with the NYUAD Art Gallery, will present an exhibition of photographs by acclaimed filmmaker Andrew Dosunmu (Restless City) entitled "The African Game." Presented in the Arts Centre Project Space from March 4th - 14th, Dosunmu's exhibition looks to football as a way to explore modern African life, culture, and identity. A compelling, on-the-ground depiction of Africa's passion for football, these photographs look at the rich sporting culture that has produced some of professional football's biggest and highest-paid stars. This show, Dosunmu's first in the UAE, will be celebrated with an opening reception on Wednesday, March 4th, at 5:30pm.
Bill Bragin, Executive Artistic Director of the NYUAD Arts Centre, said, " Kicking and Screening is a major contributor to NYUAD's ambitious vision of creating a global arts and culture centre and helping to redefine the arts in Abu Dhabi. Our goal with this festival is to create a programme that not only speaks to fans of contemporary film, but also to tap into the broad passion for football which will resonate through so many communities in Abu Dhabi and the UAE." Dedicated to showcasing the best of global football films through this emerging film genre, the festival's roots can be traced to April 2009, when two fervent football and film fans, Greg Lalas and Rachel Markus, hatched an idea for a global festival celebrating football culture.
The success of the inaugural, sold-out Kicking and Screening New York 2009 festival has led to Kicking and Screening events across the US including Washington, DC, Houston, Texas, North Adams, Massachusetts, and Portland, Oregon. Globally, the festival has travelled to London and Liverpool, Kerala, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Rio de Janeiro.
Source: WAM