Not every MLS player has a film made about them, but then again not every player is as talented as Sporting Kansas City’s Kei Kamara. Dave LaMattina and Chad Walker of Copper Pot Pictures put together this short, but powerful documentary about the Sierra Leone striker that has taken MLS by storm.
Over 750 people turned out for the initial screening sponsored by Sporting KC and in the process the event raised nearly $2,000 for schools in West Africa. Connecting a wonderful film like KEI with charity is a great way to celebrate the beautiful game. A quick Q&A with the film’s directors and producers can be found below:
1. What inspired the film KEI?
LAMATTINA: Honestly, we have huge ties to Sierra Leone. Our first film, BROWNSTONES TO RED DIRT, was about a pen pal program connecting kids in Brooklyn, NY with war orphans in Freetown, Sierra Leone. We had wanted to do a sports doc and thought it would be great to tie our love of soccer and Sierra Leone together and do something about the Leone Stars.
WALKER: The timing was just right for this film. We were headed back to Sierra Leone for the official opening of the primary school that we funded with BROWNSTONES. When we were there Kei was there with the national team for a game, so we took 3 days and shot with him. It was a really wild and crazy shoot, but ultimately we ended up with a film that we are all very proud of.
2. Why did you choose to focus on the life and career of Kei Kamara?
LAMATTINA: It so happens that Kei supports Schools for Salone, the US-based non-profit we worked with to build the school. We asked the group’s director to introduce us to Kei and she did. We told Kei that we would be returning to Sierra Leone in September 2011 to attend the opening of the school and since there was a national team match in Freetown, we’d love to follow him around to create a profile. He said yes without hesitation.
WALKER: And once you start to learn about what he went through not only in Sierra Leone (surviving the horrible civil war, being ripped away from his family and becoming a refugee) but also what he went through once he got to the States, you can’t help but want to know more about him. That is something that is often forgotten: in most films, the person escapes war and gets to the U.S. and we assume everything is fine after that. It isn’t. Kei was teased because he couldn’t read (there was not a lot of schooling going on during a civil war). But despite all that, he overcame everything and is where he is today. It is remarkable.
3. What does this film tell us about African football?
LAMATTINA: I won’t speak for all of African football, but from our experience, the game in Sierra Leone is so different. It’s not just the way it’s played, but even at the national team level, the logistics are crazy. Kei told us that there’s only one grass field in the whole country. Everywhere else they’re playing on dirt or sand or concrete. Kei says it himself: Sierra Leone football is hard. The travel is crazy. The schedule changes constantly. We’re currently in production on a documentary about Bob Bradley and the Egyptian national team and the story is the same there. The logistics are just so complicated–I think a lot of that is due to the gap between the haves and the have-nots. Sierra Leone, unfortunately, is a have-not. But that doesn’t stop the passion from the fans or the players–it’s actually the opposite. I’ve never seen anything like the passion we saw in Sierra Leone on gameday.
WALKER: A message in KEI, I would say, is that something like football can really reunite a nation and help it crawl out from the shadows of war. If you look at other nations like the Ivory Coast or Togo, football put those places back on the map. It’s the same with Egypt, it is incredible how much focus is on football, and how political it can get. Football is so much more than just a game in these places.
4. Why is the story of the Sierra Leone national team so powerful (and frustrating at the same time)?
LAMATTINA: Every kid in Sierra Leone plays soccer. Every single one. The Leone Stars don’t struggle due to lack of talent or interest. The talent is there, it just needs to be effectively channeled. I don’t blame the federation either. You’re talking about a country that is still healing and rebuilding its infrastructure after a devastating civil war. It’s natural that it would take things like the national soccer team a while to get back on the right track. But I think they will. I think they’ll surprise some people.
WALKER: Like Dave said, the talent is there, it’s just that the funding is not. Luckily, now players from Sierra Leone are starting to play elsewhere, like Europe. Because, as Kei says in the film, the federation is there when qualifiers start but once they are over – there are not there, so the players are stuck playing on dirt or sand fields, not in leagues with quality opponents and on quality pitches. It’s hard to improve that way!
5. What are your plans for KEI in the future?
WALKER: I would love to see KEI go from the festival circuit to the television screen. I think the story is very inspirational and people will be moved by it. Shorts are hard because you don’t traditionally get a short into theaters (other than a festival run) and they are rarely released on DVD (unless it is part of a group of shorts) so broadcast is really the best outlet.
6. What other projects are you working on?
LAMATTINA: As I mentioned earlier, our next soccer doc is titled WE MUST GO and is about Bob Bradley and his quest to bring Egypt back to the World Cup. We’ve had a chance to shoot with Coach both in Egypt and here in the States. He’s an amazing guy. We’re also in production on I AM BIG BIRD, which is about Caroll Spinney, who has been Sesame Street’s Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch since 1969. He’s 78–and still doing it.
Our Review of KEI
This short film captures the spirit of the beautiful game in a memorable way. Kamara is a great source of inspiration, a talented player that has developed into one of the best attackers in all of Major League Soccer. His journey is a special one, from Sierra Leone to America and back to Sierra Leone for a stint with his country’s national team.
The best part of Kamara is that he never forgot his roots. His humble nature has made him a fan favorite on two continents. And his future is incredibly bright both as a player and a great role model for the next generation of footballers.
This documentary tells about the great promise of the African game, the challenges and potential of a still untapped footballing resource. It gives us the game we love at its most basic form and shows us how big the game can really be. Simply put the film is as special as Kei Kamara, one of the jewels of the American game and now the football prince of Sierra Leone.
