The Loneliness of the Left Wing-Back (2024)

Overview

"Football is synonymous with childhood and the neighborhood," asserts an interviewee in ‘La soledad del jugador de banda’ (‘The Loneliness of the Left Wing-Back’). Through the analogy between football and cinema, this documentary addresses the social, community, and identity-shaping power of the sport. Set against the backdrop of the working-class neighborhoods in southern Madrid, it reveals the desire to make films and the opportunities available to the working class to do so. Thus emerges a metacinematic narrative to reflect on form and the implications of creators and their desires. Furthermore, it explores how the communities built around football interact with the "other"—with the marginalized—through homophobia and machismo in sports. The filmmaker lays himself bare to tell his story as a fan, a player, a queer individual, and an aspiring filmmaker.