2006 Film Festival
2006 Baseball Hall of Fame Film Festival
November 10-12
Hit the lights: Hall hosts first film festival
Event to feature 13 films covering various aspects of baseball
For Bill Povletich, the road to the National Baseball Hall of Fame began in a bookstore.
The author and documentary filmmaker was visiting his native Wisconsin when he chanced upon a display featuring Jerry Poling's "A Summer Up North: Henry Aaron and the Legend of Eau Claire Baseball." Povletich, who grew up with a great respect for the home run king, quickly read the non-fiction account about the first season "Hammerin' Hank" played professional baseball.
As Povletich read, his filmmaker's eye saw potential. Always a fan of hero stories, whether Greek myth or "Lord of the Rings," "A Summer Up North" struck Povletich as an archetypical one.
"It's about an African-American kid who grew up before the civil rights movement in the South, has dreams and aspirations, and to reach his destiny as baseball player, and [he] has to battle adversity and society -- as well as deal with being only 18 years old," Povletich said. "A lesser man would have quit or gone home. Henry Aaron persevered and exceeded any expectations that could have been set for him."
Povletich set out to create a documentary that would serve as a companion to Poling's book and showcase the story for a wider audience. He also felt driven to ensure this story was told before Aaron's home run record could be surpassed by Barry Bonds. Povletich accomplished each of those goals, as his film, "Henry Aaron's Summer Up North," will be shown Saturday as part of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum's inaugural Baseball Film Festival.
"Between being a big baseball fan and Henry Aaron's 'Summer Up North' being a passion project, it was very gratifying for the film to be recognized by the Hall of Fame and the film festival, because that's the core audience," Povletich said.
The three-day juried event -- the judges include noted film critic Jeffrey Lyons -- begins Friday, November 10 at 5:30 p.m. ET and will feature 13 films covering nearly as many topics. Several focus on varying aspects of the international spread of the game, from the impact of Dominican pioneers in MLB ("The Republic of Baseball: The Dominican Giants of the American Game") to the March Madness-like frenzy of the "Koshien" national high school baseball tournament in Japan ("Kokoyakyu: High School Baseball").
One film, "Play Ball: A Trilogy of Baseball Films," flips the focus, as British filmmaker Abigail Bess focuses on three aspects of the American pastime: umpires, fans and groundskeepers. Bess -- who joked that she kept referring to the pitcher with the cricket term "bowler" -- said that "Play Ball" originated five years ago as a theatrical piece conceived by her husband, Denny. Bess saw the potential for a film translation, but realized breaking out of theater meant reconsidering the stark, minimalist set of the original.
Bess decided that film required a stadium setting, and contacted Shea Stadium, home to the New York Mets. She was well-received, and created her trilogy inside the Flushing Meadows ballpark. Each segment of "Play Ball" is a musically driven, black-and-white narrative.
"It tries to recreate a nostalgic vision, and I think color would have been too overpowering," Bess said. "I think black and white fit the time, place and what the sport represented. There's something much more romantic about it. For this subject, it seemed a natural choice. And for the music, we chose all these old American standards, like George Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue'. It was about recreating the old feeling of baseball and what the perfect game meant."
While Bess' film aims to tap into baseball nostalgia, John Fitzgerald's "The Emerald Diamond" covers baseball's cultural evolution in its nascent stages, telling the story of the Irish national team. Fitzgerald was browsing the Internet in 2003 when he came across the team's Web site. Intrigued by the concept -- which he had never before considered -- he began to research the team's story.
According to baseballireland.com, the foundation for the Irish national team was laid in 1995, when MLB International coaches visited the country to provide instruction. By 1996, Ireland was participating in international tournaments, and the framework was set for a seven-team adult league. Two years later, the Irish reached the quarterfinals of the European Championship in Australia, finishing eighth among 16 teams -- even though it was the smallest country to participate.
"When I found out their story, I felt compelled to make a film about it," Fitzgerald said. "They're the ultimate underdogs; they're in this small country where it rains all the time. They had very little equipment, and most had never seen a baseball uniform, let alone played in one. I went through the story with the guys the same way the audience goes through it -- thinking there's no way they'll win a game or a medal -- but eventually that all gets proven untrue."
The Irish national team's story is one that iconic saloonkeeper Toots Shor would have appreciated. Shor -- the subject of "Toots," by granddaughter Kristi Jacobson -- lived a life GQ editor Michael Henley said went from "rags to rags, with indefinable riches in between," according to the Web site tootsthemovie.com.
The irrepressible Shor ran an eponymous saloon in New York City for 30 years, bringing together sports figures, sports writers and the common fan in jovial and acerbic fashion. Jacobson barely knew her grandfather, who died when she was 6, but after a push from a producer, she realized his story needed to be told and she was particularly suited to do so.
"I knew sports fans would know him, but I didn't realize what a central figure he was in the sports world at such a pivotal time in the evolution of sports as we know it," Jacobson said. "My generation's experience with sports is completely different than it was for people then, and it's really important to understand that history. One thing I learned was that Toots' restaurant and story really embody a golden age -- particularly in baseball in New York in the 1940s, '50s and '60s -- that's worth reliving and taking stock of today."
The film spans Toots' post-World War II beginnings to its spectacular decline in the '70s. It is narrated by Shor; the audio was collected during an oral history completed two years before his death. "Toots" has already been screened for several audiences, but Jacobson is certain he'd be most proud of its next viewing.
"Toots felt that sports were the backbone of American life and that 'any good citizen should have a devoted interest in sports,'" Jacobson said. "The National Baseball Hall of Fame is a great place to honor Toots, his absolute loyalty and devotion to sports and to the fans who are just as important as the athletes playing the sport."
Ben Couch, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
