Zanzibar Soccer Dreams

Zanzibar Soccer Dreams presents the dawn of an era for women’s football in Zanzibar. This film is a follow-up to the 2007 Zanzibar Soccer Queens which focused on Women Fighters Football Club, a team of strong-willed Muslim women determined to play soccer. The women’s resistance to cultural norms has taken them beyond the borders of their country; when they were invited to visit Potsdam, Germany, attitudes started to change back home. The once-marginalised football 'hooligans' are now cultural ambassadors. Schoolgirls can now play soccer as part of their physical education. As one schoolgirls says, “Something great has happened to girls.”

Date 2016

Length 63 minutes

Director Florence Ayisi & Catalin Brylla

Festival Screening Highlights

Canadian Sport Film Festival, Canada – 2016 – Closing Night Film
Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF), Tanzania – 2016
Official Selection, Lisbon International Film Festival, Portugal – 2016
TrueDoc Documentary Festival, Ukraine – 2016
Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival & Lecture Series, USA – 2016
Magic Lantern Cinema, Tywyn, UK – 2016
Cambridge African Film Festival, UK – 2016
Chaplaincy, University of South Wales – Black History Month, UK – 2016
Africa in Motion, Edinburgh and Glasgow, UK – 2016
Watch-Africa: Wales African Film Festival, UK – 2016 – Touring in Wales
Arusha African Film Festival in St. John’s, Antigua and Barbuda – 2016
The Pickle Factory, Bristol, UK – 2016
King’s College London, UK – 2016
Silver Theatre and Cultural Center – American Film Institute, USA – 2017
Deptford Cinema, London, UK – 2017
Women of The Lens Festival of Film, Digital and Broadcast, UK – 2017
Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, Germany – 2017
International Documentary Festival of Ierapetra Awards, Greece – 2018
Silicon Valley African Film Festival (SVAFF), USA – 2018
Lake International Pan African Film Festival, Nairobi, Kenya – 2018
University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana – 2018

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