It’s a string of passes on a dead run, each step and each touch with a pure purpose. It’s a sliding tackle that swipes nothing but leather. It’s a leaping save, a curving corner.

It’s Dillon Short on a breakaway that gives Westlake the lead. It’s Sarah Gross, soaring above a striker to punch the ball out of the box to preserve a Chap victory.

It’s soccer in Westlake, futbol in East Austin. It’s the beautiful game, taking a sweat, having a kick-about, playing footie.

It’s “Pelada,” an intriguing documentary celebrating the simple roots of the world’s most popular game that will make its global premiere at this weekend’s South By Southwest Film Festival.

A Portuguese word that translates literally to “naked,” the term “pelada” has a simple but deep meaning in Brazil. The word refers to the game of soccer stripped down to its core: a handful of players, a sliver of open space, and a sphere of any make or matter.

The term captures the sport’s spirit as seen through the lens of filmmakers Rebekah Fergusson, Luke Boughen, Gwendolyn Oxenham and Ryan White, who spent six months traveling to 25 different countries and playing pick-up soccer games in the most unexpected locales.

A Bolivian prison, in which a bribe allows the Americans inside the walls. A Chinese square, where the players learn moves via YouTube videos of Messi and Ronaldo. A dusty rocky pitch in Iran, which hosts a side of women in hijabs, booting the ball while all-encompassing black robes leaving trails of dust.

All the backdrops serve as stark contrasts to the familiar settings in the U.S., where manicured greens host swarms of well-fed youngsters, and families pay exorbitant sums for accredited lessons.

It’s still soccer, but it’s not “Pelada.”

“Pelada” will have three screenings at the 2010 South By Southwest Film Festival, which begins Friday at various theaters around Austin. The film shows: Sunday, 7:15 p.m., G-Tech Theatre at Austin Convention Center; Monday, noon, Alamo South Lamar; March 19, 3:30 p.m., Alamo South Lamar.

Visit sxsw.com for more information.

SETTING SCREENS

In addition to “Pelada,” the South By Southwest Film Festival has a handful of other sports films making their world premier.

Hood To Coast
“Hood to Coast” follows four unlikely teams on their epic journey to conquer the world’s largest relay race. Winning isn’t everything in a documentary that takes a celebratory look at personal motivation and attempting the extraordinary.
Saturday, 2:15 p.m., G-Tech Theatre at Austin Convention Center; Tuesday, 1 p.m., Paramount Theatre; March 20, 2 p.m., Alamo South Lamar.

No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson
Director Steve James returns to his hometown of Hampton, Va., to examine the 1993 bowling alley brawl that landed Allen Iverson, the nation’s top high-school basketball player, in jail and divided the community along racial lines.
Sunday, 11 a.m., Paramount Theatre; March 19, 2:45 p.m., G-Tech Theatre at Austin Convention Center.

The Ride
A journey into the heart of America through the rough and tumble, rock ’n’ roll world of bull-riding cowboys.
Wednesday, 7 p.m., G-Tech Theatre at Austin Convention Center.

Thunder Soul
In the 1970s, Houston Kashmere High School band director Conrad Johnson turned his students into an international funk sensation. Thirty years later, his students return to pay tribute to the man who changed their lives.
Saturday, 11 a.m., Paramount Theatre; Monday, 6:45 p.m., Alamo South Lamar; March 19, 2:30 p.m., Paramount Theatre.