Kicking It

"Kicking It" is a soccer documentary profiling the World Homeless Cup. No overpaid athletes here - they are street people with a passion for soccer, or "football" as most other parts of the world call it. The movie features selected teams: from Kenya, Ireland, Russia, Afghanistan and the United States. Friendships and even romances bloom in Johannesburg during the soccer tournament.

For the most part, the player/participants can put aside their demons and become absorbed in the transcendence of sports, giving themselves new identities, goals and a sense of belonging that is lacking out on the streets. Suppressing these features does not always work, though. Occasionally, reality breaks through, as in the case of the Irish goalie who can't play a key game because he "forgot" to take his methadone.

"Kicking It" is a feel-good story, but let's not get too carried away here. For example, it would be nice and interesting to know, though, whether the sports experience caused any lasting changes in the lives of these men, or if they returned from the tournament to resume a harsh life on the streets. Such more troubling questions are sidestepped by "Kicking It" and might have to await a different documentary.

I ran across the title frames of this film as I was flipping through channels and decided to see what it was all about. First time I've EVER watched anything on ESPN.

I laughed, I cried, I learned and am here on Amazon to buy the DVD so that I can share it with my children. An excellent, excellent film that I'll never forget.

Just saw it on ESPN2 by chance in a hotel bar on a business trip. It was incredible, inspiring, touching, magnificent ..... I could go on but you get the idea.

I am not a soccer/football fan. I don't work with the homeless. Yet when I saw this offering at the Impact Film Festival during the Democratic National Convention in Denver, I was intrigued. An *international* sporting event--for *homeless* people? Frankly, I was stunned to discover anyone had managed any sort of multinational cooperation on behalf of the disenfranchised at all, let alone from such war-torn and poor countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kenya, etc. Still, I was entranced to see the reactions of these "lost" men as they worked toward this single goal, and in the process acquired many of the skills they needed to better their lives, or, at the very least, the hope to hold out for a better future. My favorite part was seeing the reactions as these men, few of whom had ever left their home cities, let alone their countries, as they discovered their similarities as well as their differences with their counterparts from around the world. Not everyone went home with a trophy, but everyone returned with something infinitely better--pride.