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ARCHIVE

10th(2008)



The Railroad All-Stars

Chema RODRÍGUEZ

  • Spain
  • 2006
  • 90min
  • 35mm
  • color
  • Documentary

SYNOPSIS


Along the railroad crossing Guatemala in Central America, there is a street named La Linea. On that street, over 200 women prostitutes have been killed and assaulted every year. So they formed a women soccer team, the Railroad All-Stars, to try to claim their rights to legal protection against these assaults and murders. This team won in their local games and also the national tour games and then they went to El Salvador to win against another team of prostitutes there with the score of 8 to 1. This is a documentary that focuses on the team members¡¯ daily lives and their soccer games. This documentary includes the combined styles of music videos, interviews, and road movies to allow each of the prostitutes to tell her life-story of poor treatment and the scars and pain she has survived and to insist that we see them as human beings, not just as objects. The team members are Vallerina, the team leader, Mercy from El Salvador, Wilma, the best team striker, and the goal keeper, Lupe who is Wilma¡¯s lover, Marina, a former prostitute who is their spiritual leader and a trans-gender, Kimbely, their uniform manager. They inspire self confidence, and friendship through soccer in spite of their painful past experiences of sexual assault by family members, outrages and poverty. The members of the team are real heroines in spite of the fact that they have literally been treated like garbage. In the end, the team disbanded after the El Salvador match unfortunately without gaining the legal protection they sought. (KIM Sunah)
 

PROGRAM NOTE


Along the railroad crossing Guatemala in Central America, there is a street named La Linea. On that street, over 200 women prostitutes have been killed and assaulted every year. So they formed a women soccer team, the Railroad All-Stars, to try to claim their rights to legal protection against these assaults and murders. This team won in their local games and also the national tour games and then they went to El Salvador to win against another team of prostitutes there with the score of 8 to 1. This is a documentary that focuses on the team members¡¯ daily lives and their soccer games. This documentary includes the combined styles of music videos, interviews, and road movies to allow each of the prostitutes to tell her life-story of poor treatment and the scars and pain she has survived and to insist that we see them as human beings, not just as objects. The team members are Vallerina, the team leader, Mercy from El Salvador, Wilma, the best team striker, and the goal keeper, Lupe who is Wilma¡¯s lover, Marina, a former prostitute who is their spiritual leader and a trans-gender, Kimbely, their uniform manager. They inspire self confidence, and friendship through soccer in spite of their painful past experiences of sexual assault by family members, outrages and poverty. The members of the team are real heroines in spite of the fact that they have literally been treated like garbage. In the end, the team disbanded after the El Salvador match unfortunately without gaining the legal protection they sought. (KIM Sunah)
 

Director

  • Chema RODRÍGUEZChema RODRÍGUEZ

    Chema Rodriguez Born in Seville, Spain in 1967. In 1996 he became founder and director of the magazine Cartographica. Between 1992 and 1995 he produced and directed a series entitled Lamérica x 4 and in 1999 he directed for New Atlantis and Televisión Española Sahel, The Wounded Border, a thirteen episode documentary series that has been broadcast internationally in countries including France and Germany. In addition to all this work as a documentary filmmaker, he has written two books: ¡ºThe Whale¡¯s Tooth¡»and ¡ºNight Falls in Katmandu¡».

Credit

  • ProducerBeatriz DELGADO
  • Screenwriter Chema RODRÍGUEZ
  • Cinematography René SOZA
  • Editor Pablo Blanco GUZMÁN
  • Music Michel PERAZA
  • Sound Dela Da COSTA