Photo courtesy “Gringos at the Gate.”
It seems like “Gringos at the Gate” has been around forever, although the locally-made independent documenatry is only now getting its LA premiere.
I served on a radio panel with filmmaker Pablo Miralles on KPFK during the 2010 World Cup and helped publicize the Kickstarter campaign so additional footage could be shot, so it’s only natural to follow the story through its local release.
But in a sense all Southern California residents have lived with the subject matter of this important film our entire lives although it is more essential to one national identity more than the other.
It helps explain why we don’t get more national team games locally against Mexican (and Latin American) teams.
It’s why (in part) Chivas USA exists (and why it isn’t flourishing).
It is a rivalry that helps shape our soccer culture on the local level more than anywhere else in the nation.
Read the the column here.
Watch the trailer:
Gringos at the Gate trailer from Michael Whalen / Whalen Films on Vimeo.
(And then see the movie).