Dreamtown

SYNOPSIS/

DreamTown follows the triumphant yet at times tragic portrait of the struggle three young men face to realize their dream, whether individually competing for their place on Ecuador’s professional soccer team or after finding success being determined to uplift their people.

Here the dreams of a pro, a protege’ and a novice collide as these afro-Ecuadorians perform for community, national and international audiences with the hopes of bringing home more than just a medal. Their family’s survival and whole community’s hopes are riding on their shoulders.

The film is set in the impoverished backwater Afro-Ecuadorian town of El Chota Valley, a place where the primary export is Ecuador’s top soccer talent and prior to the 2002 World Cup was invisible to the rest of the world. Yet it still remains marginalized by a nation that so reveres their athletes.

In a part of Ecuador where viable economic opportunities are scarce, success in professional sports provides public recognition and a highly unlikely, but appealing exit strategy. Only 10 players per year are chosen to play professionally yet that does not deter hundreds of young boys from tracing the footsteps of Ecuador’s Afro-descendant soccer stars.

The success of these star players from El Chota Valley has had an unprecedented impact on the area, planting the seed to transform the widespread social, political and economic discrimination Afro-Ecuadorians face. This documentary sheds light on the transformative power of dreams within a forgotten Afro-Ecuadorian community.

Will these kids make it to create a new identity for themselves and their community or will a generation of young boys be lost by risking it all for a pipe dream.

MAIN CHARACTERS/

CARLOS MALDONADO, 22

Carlos dreams of pursuing soccer gold. He is trying out to be one of the four players chosen for Imbabura Sporting Club, a team a level under the professional tier. We find out that after 10 years of trying to advance this year yet again he doesn’t make the cut. Time is running out, this may be his last opportunity to give it all he’s got. His family’s home is crumbling—they don’t have the money needed for repairs. His father is deaf and cannot work; his mother desperately pressures him to quit the team and help out the family and he is about to give up. He is at difficult crossroads that could mean the end of the road for his dream and tragically like so many others, with no back-up plan in site.



ANIBAL CHALA, 14

In a backdrop of a soccer “field of dreams” you can find Anibal as one of the standout players. A talented hopeful playing in El National’s formative youth leagues, one of Ecuador’s top soccer schools with a professional team in Quito. Anibal has lofty goals of playing internationally in Chelsea or Manchester like his role model Antonio Valencia, an Afro-Ecuadorian player currently playing for Manchester United.

Since his father has fallen deathly ill, Anibal has found himself the head of a family of 9 brothers and sisters, whom he dropped out of school to help care for. He cleans, baths them, prepares meals and gives his father his medicine. While his family barely scrapes by he still manages to do whatever he can to make it to soccer practice even if he has to borrow for bus fare to get there.

His coach sees his talent and tells him to focus as much as he can on soccer in order to have a real chance at making it. Sadly, this is the reality for many young boys in El Chota, where the competition is stiff and a line of eager hopefuls wait for the opportunity to take his place.

So much for him is riding on every game, for if he makes it he can help out his family significantly. But as his father’s condition worsens leading up to game changing matches, where scouts have an eye out for the next in line to move up, how much can he gamble and sacrifice to take this chance is left to be seen.

ULISES DE LA CRUZ, 37

Ulises is an international soccer star that came from impoverished beginnings in the valley, playing without shoes to playing in the last two World Cups and now playing professionally in Ecuador, after recently moving back from a distinguished playing career in England. His and other players’ success begun to transform the stigma Afro-Ecuadorians have faced. This has also resulted in an entire community of youth single-mindedly pursuing one goal– following in their footsteps to play professional soccer. He yearns to be able to do more while he still can as he approaches the end of his soccer career.

Like many famous soccer players that made it out from El Chota, he started his own foundation, Fundecruz, donating 20% of his earnings to building a medical center, a sewage system, roads, schools, water plants, housing and a gym to serve over 200 families. Yet, Ulyses knows it will take much more to build up his community to be self-sustaining and permanently lifted out of poverty. His mission is not only to inspire kids to play soccer but also to invest in a future beyond it, based on education and taking part in helping out their community.

Ulyses, Carlos, and Anibal’s contrasting accounts embody the spirit of soccer as a vehicle to transcend racial, economic and social barriers that previously have divided a country and neglected this region. By telling the stories of the country’s most cherished possession—their athletes, the goal of this film is to shed light on these forgotten communities, and the dualities that exists when “DreamTown” is accessible only for the very few.

CREDITS/

Producer / Director: Betty Bastidas

Writer/Producer: Maia Monasterios.

Cinematography: Alba Mora

Country and Year: U.S.A – Ecuador 2011

Language: Spanish with English subtitles.

HD CAM 1080 24p

LINKS/

Dreamtown official website.

PHOTOS/