ORLANDO – Orlando’s love affair with Orlando City SC took on a Hollywood touch on Wednesday, with the premiere of the club's documentary "Making History" being held at the first night of the Orlando Film Festival.
Combining a growing indie film festival with Central Florida’s latest sporting phenomenon proved an inspired move as the crowds – both soccer fans and movie buffs – came out in force for the debut work of Brazilian producer Decio Lopes, who joined City’s new business ventures group earlier this year.
One of his first tasks was to film the team’s preparations for their debut MLS season, with a special emphasis on their opening “Fill The Bowl” game against New York City on March 8. The film gives an inside look at how the Lions progressed into Major League Soccer, and includes behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with key front office members, coaches and players, like founding owner Phil Rawlins and his wife Kay, majority owner Flavio Augusto da Silva, head coach Adrian Heath and Brazilian star Kaká.
The 47-minute movie concludes with a dramatic look at the opener vs. NYCFC, which featured a sellout crowd of 62,500 and ended in a 1-1 draw after Kaká's free-kick leveler in second half stoppage time.
It was greeted with sustained applause by an all-ticket first-night audience of invited guests, players and front office members, fans and festival goers, and was followed by a Q-&-A session outside the theater with Rawlins, Lopes and Heath.
“It took almost four months to make, but we wanted to highlight that 10-day countdown to the first game, when everyone was so pushed to make everything happen,” said Lopes. “We realized we couldn’t miss that moment, with all the raw emotion of the time, so we just started filming and then pieced it all together like a puzzle.
“I really wanted to give this opportunity to the fans of the future so, in 50 years’ time, they will be able to look back on all these wonderful people in and around the club and see what they achieved in such a short time.”
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Rawlins said seeing all the events leading up to March 8 brought out old feelings of pride and delight at the team’s journey from Austin to Orlando, and then from USL to MLS in the space of just seven years.
“The emotions for me were similar to when we made the film,” he confirmed. “It was very raw in the week leading up to the opening game and the journey has been surreal in many ways.”
The movie will be screened again during the festival on Saturday at 8 pm ET, and the club is now working on turning the film into a DVD that will be available to fans in the near future.
