GBHS grad nets film debut
BY NATHAN DOMINIC Special to the News franklin@gulfbreezenews.com

Soccer follows Gulf Breeze High School graduate and standout Gwendolyn Oxenham past high school and college sports into her professional career.

They were looking for a great idea, and they needed inspiration.

Gwendolyn Oxenham of Gulf Breeze got together with a few friends during the Duke University alumni weekend last fall in Durham, N.C. It was sometime between midnight and 2 a.m., when heads are clear, minds are open and the creative juices flow best.

They bunkered down at the library. Hey, it's Duke.

Fueled by coffee, Oxenham played with sugar packets and sought an answer. How best to combine soccer, the sport they have loved and played most of their lives, with their avocation, documentary filmmaking? She thought of her father, Randy, and his love of the iconic 1966 surfing documentary "The Endless Summer," which he "has made me watch since I was 6 years old," said Oxenham, 24 in November.

" 'Endless Summer' is two friends traveling around the world looking for the perfect wave," she said. "So, what if we traveled around the world looking for pick-up (soccer) games? That's how it all started, and everything kept falling into place."

"The Soccer Project" was born. Credit her co-star, co-director and boyfriend, Luke Boughen, with the working title of the documentary in progress. (It also makes for a good Web site name, Oxenham said.) Boughen, 24, a former academic and soccer standout at his alma mater, Notre Dame, is part of the four-person crew along with Rebekah Fergusson, like Oxenham a former Blue Devils soccer player and a filmmaker; and 2004 Duke graduate and project producer Ryan White, the old man of the group at almost 26 and an already an accomplished documentary maker with several prestigious screen credits.

Boughen and Oxenham will be the two soccer players looking to start or join in on pick-up games at both accessible and remote locations around the world, beginning with a South American tour from September to December. (See www.thesoccerproject.com for the most updated list of projected locales and other information.)

Fergusson and White will capture these impromptu moments in natural light with unobtrusive high-definition video cameras and microphones. All four are co-directors, which should make for some interesting behind-the-scenes conversations (or will it be all part of the "reality"?). Particulars of how to film and present "The Soccer Project" are still up for discussion.

"That's been the hardest part so far, putting words to what I think we all know we want to show,'' Boughen said.

"There's a romantic angle on one side,'' Oxenham said. "It's four friends traveling around the world, playing the game they love. It's everybody's dream. What's really, really important to me is the intimacy between cultures that soccer creates. No matter where you go, what you do, if people are playing soccer, you can get into that game."

Even during this time of anti-American passions in some corners of the world, she said. The project's quartet credits others for articulating how the power of soccer connects and unifies people above and beyond political and historical barriers.

"Soccer creates this incredible intimacy,'' Oxenham said. "That's the focus. We all play this one game. We don't want it to be a heavy-handed film, 'Oh, soccer connects the world.' We don't want to talk about that. Hopefully, the images will do that themselves. In Afghanistan, girls are playing for the first time, and they're wearing traditional head-to-toe garb and playing soccer. Then we'll be in Brazil with old guys in Speedos."

That last image may not be the first selling point when looking for financial backing for "The Soccer Project," and they are definitely looking -- along with working out the details and logistics for such a massive undertaking.

"We've been working from when we wake up until when we can't function at night," Boughen said.

They have gotten a lot of help from sources such as the Duke University Office of the Provost and Center for Documentary Studies, which donated $25,000 to cover equipment costs. The Southern Documentary Fund is handling tax-deductible donations as the fiscal sponsor.

The project has had some more-famous names sign on as advisors, such as former World Cup player and current ABC/ESPN commentator Eric Wynalda; former women's World Cup player and current Duke assistant coach Carla Overbeck; and "Survivor" winner and soccer activist/philanthropist Ethan Zohn. The hope is that they can make contacts with some heavy hitters in the soccer and corporate worlds. Pele and adidas, anyone?

Oxenham said they have raised about $38,000 of the $60,000 they have budgeted for the South American leg of this globe-trotting enterprise, which could require traveling into the winter of 2008, depending on financing. She said a proven strategy is to take a 20-minute "short cut" of the intended full-length film (in this case, the South American footage) and shop it around to movie studios for their backing.

"If there can be gigantically popular documentaries about penguins marching across ice and spelling bees, there's no reason why a soccer film can't be popular outside of soccer," Oxenham said.

On the cusp of a great adventure, Oxenham already has packed a lifetime of achievements into her 23 years.

In her junior year at GBHS in 2000, she scored 66 goals -- including six in one game -- for the state champion Lady Dolphins, who were No. 1 in a national ranking. She also played for years for the elite travel team, Pensacola Samba, coached by Peter Stephens.

At 16, she was the youngest student-athlete in NCAA Division I history. This was possible because of her uncommon combination of academic and athletic excellence -- she enrolled at Duke in lieu of her senior year at the high school -- and her starting kindergarten at age 4 in California, where she was born.

"My parents just wanted me out of the house," she quipped about Ninalyn and Randy Oxenham, who moved the family to New Orleans before settling in Gulf Breeze when Gwendolyn was in third grade.

Twice an all-conference performer for the Duke women's soccer team, the former high-scoring machine in high school successfully moved to outside midfielder and led the Blue Devils in assists as a senior. In the classroom, she produced two video documentaries and graduated with honors with a degree in English and a documentary studies certificate.

Two years later, in the spring of 2006, Oxenham earned a master's degree in fine arts and creative writing at Notre Dame. One especially valuable graduation present was the Nicholas Sparks Prize, a $20,000 grant annually funded by the best-selling author and Notre Dame alumnus to assist (read: buy writing time) for a distinguished graduate of the Indiana school's creative writing program. Oxenham said she is close to finishing her book, "Essence Game," a non-fiction story about soccer and family.

She explained that "Essence Game," a title she also used for one of her college documentaries, came from the thinking game she and teammates played on bus and plane trips to describe someone. (For example, what kind of flower would they be?) So what is her essence? Boughen stepped up when asked about his girlfriend.

"She's hard-working and goofy," Boughen said. "That's her essence."

On the field, Boughen is "kind of the artist, he plays beautifully," Oxenham said. "I play ugly and scrappy."

In a section of the literature put out by "The Soccer Project," there is a quote from Uruguayan journalist Eduardo Galeano that said, "Tell me how you play, and I'll tell you who you are." Of all of her accomplishments on and off the field, Oxenham is proudest of two particularly meaningful episodes that reflect positively on who she is.

One is that her Duke teammates selected her captain for her senior season. The other is that she played for a women's pro team in Brazil in the summer of 2005.

"Every soccer player's dream is to go to Brazil and play in the land where soccer is religion," Oxenham said. "No one spoke English. I couldn't communicate for a whole summer. That type of thing scares me."

Sure, it would have been easier to take a summer job at the mall, but Oxenham faced this rather daunting challenge head-on. Her command of the native language, Portuguese, was limited to "I'm tired" and "I'm hungry," which came in handy on a diet of hot dog buns, rice and beans. She didn't say it enough, as she lost 15 pounds.

Her teammates didn't have it easy, either, when trying to enunciate the "Gw" sound of her first name. The goalkeeper tried and ended up with "Gremlin," like the furry creatures or the subcompact car from the 1970s (not sure which is worse).

Eventually they got the hang of "Gwendolyn," though perhaps they should have stuck with just "G," as Oxenham was called by Duke teammates for simplicity and speed sake out on the soccer pitch.

Oxenham was cool with all of those names, though secretly she wished she could be called the next Mia Hamm. She did not become an icon of women's soccer who crossed over into a national and international fame. ("It's obvious now that was a silly, naïve idea," she said.) However, she would like to give professional soccer a try when a women's league in the United States gets back to running again because she never got the opportunity.

Her future could include becoming a college professor in writing or documentary studies, a published author and, depending on how "The Soccer Project" goes, making movies.

Perhaps she could be the next Steven Spielberg (executive producer of "Gremlins" in 1984).

For tax-deductible donations, make checks payable to The Southern Documentary Fund (SDF), making sure to include "The Soccer Project" in the memo of the check. Address: The Southern Documentary Fund, 762 Ninth St. #574, Durham, NC 227705. Donations can be made online in the "Donate" link at www.thesoccerproject.com.