ONCE IN A LIFETIME: THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF THE NEW YORK COSMOS

DC Premiere

Mick Jagger signed autographs in their locker room. Henry Kissinger attended their home games. Ian Schrager held back Studio 54's velvet rope for their entourage. Bugs Bunny was their mascot. And 78,000 fans packed Giants stadium to see them play.

The New York Cosmos soccer team was an American pop culture phenomenon for a few glamorous years in the late 1970s. Paul Crowder and John Dower's exuberant documentary celebrates the razzle-dazzle of the team who opened the door to America for the world's sport.

On the field, the Cosmos had legendary players: Italian star Giorgio Chinaglia; two-time European Player of the Year Franz Beckenbauer; and Pelé-the Brazilian national hero often called "the finest soccer player the world has ever seen." But the back story is the real drama-how Warner Communications CEO and team owner Steve Ross leveraged his connections to turn the Cosmos from a low-rent gang of unknown players competing on a dirt field littered with broken bottles into the captivating 1977 and 1978 North American Soccer League champions, with superstars from fourteen nations playing in the largest stadiums on the continent.

Ross and his superstars merged the cosmopolitan style of international sports with the decadent celebrity culture of New York City at the height of the disco era. Thirty years on, the key surviving managers have contradictory memories of who had the good ideas, who screwed whom over and who really mattered-but everyone remembers how much fun they had.

-Caroline Small

DIRECTOR BIOS
Paul Crowder's entertainment career started as a professional musician and recording studio engineer. One of the founding members of the band Flogging Molly, in 1995 he quit music and went full time into film editing. He edited the critical successes DOGTOWN AND Z-BOYS and GIANTS, the latter of which won the A.C.E. EDDIE for Best Edited Documentary. ONCE IN A LIFETIME is Paul's feature length directorial debut.

John Dower began his film career making several critically acclaimed, low-budget documentaries. He teamed up with Academy Award®-winning producer John Battsek on SNEAKER FREAKS. They continued their association with the feature music documentary LIVE FOREVER, which premiered at the London Film Festival. Their third film ONCE IN A LIFETIME tackles their shared passion for soccer. Dower is developing a documentary on the soccer star Diego Maradona and a possible film on Nirvana.

Print Source:
Miramax Films
99 Hudson St., 5th Floor
New York, NY 10013
212.219.4100
Nicolette.Aizenberg@miramax.com

6/18 at 3:00 PM

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