E144: The Making of Pele

Today we’re talking about Pele, the greatest footballer ever, discuss. And specifically the new documentary film of his life, released on Netflix this week.

The film chronicles Pele’s life on and off the field from his first World Cup appearance in 1958 through to the great final of 1970, a period in which Brazil moved from democracy to dictatorship, and Pele himself from an unknown teenager to the most famous sportsman in the world.

Our guests are the film’s directors Ben Nicholas and David Tryhorn, and we discuss the storytelling challenge inherent in long form sports documentaries, the issue of editorial integrity and the expectations we project on to the athletes when it comes to social and political activism. If you like the Unofficial Partner podcasts, you’ll really like our weekly newsletter, which is read by thousands of people across the global sports business, and is where we talk about the topics and themes that arise from our podcast conversations. We can send it direct to your inbox every Thursday, all you have to do is sign up via unofficialpartner.com, where you’ll also find our back catalogue of podcasts.

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