Tom Ratcliffe/Becky Paige's THE STAND: HOW ONE GESTURE SHOOK THE WORLD is a magnificent and model documentary on history and black lives in sports

Anyone interested in (the entire United States of American ought to be at this point in time) the provenance of that still-resonating "knee" that Colin Kaepernick first took back in 2016 must see the new and exemplary documentary about the protest of black athletes during the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.

THE STAND: HOW ONE GESTURE SHOOK THE WORLD is only the second film directed by Tom Ratcliffe (shown at left, he also directed Bannister: Everest on the Track) and by Becky Paige (her first), but to TrustMovies' mind both Ratcliffe and Paige have done an extraordinary job of combining history, politics, black activism, student activism (Mexican variety), sports, the Vietnam War and so much more into a single 70-minute documentary that proves as riveting as it is important to every one of those subjects mentioned above.

Colin Kaepernick is still paying for his actions -- his professional sports career seems broken -- and it turns out that the Black athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos (shown below) who took that stand back in 1968 paid an all-too-similar price.

The doc begins with but a brief look at "the stand" and then circles round to address all of the history and issues that informed the actions of the Black American Olympic winners who took that "stand" -- along with the Australian athlete and champion Peter Norman, who stood with Smith and Carlos and wore that blue-and-white button in solidarity with his Black compatriots, thus destroying his own career in the process. Australia's own racism regarding its Aborigines is all too similar to the USA's history of slavery and Black dis-empowerment, while the powers-that-were on the Olympics committee back then do more than presage and mimic the crass and venal stupidity of the NFL today.

The filmmakers are fortunate to have been able to interview for the film a number of the athletes involved back then and still alive today, as well as other folk including journalists and members of the Harvard Rowing Team, whose surprising contribution was a help to the cause. If the devil is in the details, so is the glory, and Ratcliffe and Paige (she is shown at right) have marshaled quite an array of detail that builds to make this documentary so special. They have also been able to connect the visuals and verbiage just about perfectly to keep our eyes and ears primed. Early on, one team member recalls his growing up in America's South, against a shot of black and white kids playing together. "The white kids wanted to play with us, but their parents wouldn't let them. When I asked my momma why this was, she told me -- It's just the way it is."

The movie credits long-time and still-going activist Harry Edwards (above) with helping to educate the players, both black and white and organizing the anger into worthwhile protest. Mr. Edwards was and is a marvel to see and hear. And to listen Tommie Smith (below) recall and speak out about his muscle and groin injury during that memorable day is to find yourself as close to being in his shoes (and shorts) as would seem possible.

The way the documentary handles Vietnam and these black men's attitudes about coming back home after fighting for the USA -- to find the racism not merely unchanged but maybe even worse -- puts to utter shame a piece of sloppy dreck like the current Spike Lee fiasco, Da 5 Bloods, which manages to reduce all this to schlocky, protracted, would-be entertainment that goes on for over two-and-one-half hours. The Stand lasts 70 minutes, and there's not a wasted moment. This is one magnificent, necessary, timely documentary -- the best I've seen so far this year.

From 1091 Pictures, The Stand: How One Gesture Shook the World hits streaming tomorrow, Tuesday, August 4 -- for purchase and/or rental.
Do not miss it.

Suzannah Herbert/Lauren Belfer's WRESTLE is a riveting, heartfelt teen sports documentary

The best documentary about high school sports competitions TrustMovies has seen since the Oscar-winning Undefeated (from 2011), WRESTLE, the new film directed by Suzannah Herbert, co-directed by Lauren Belfer, and co-written by both of them, along with Pablo Proenza, has been compared to the basketball documentary Hoop Dreams but strikes me as much closer in form, spirit and running-time to Undefeated.

So richly, quietly and thoroughly does the filmmaking team manage to embed you in the lives, needs, problems and desires of its quartet of high school wrestlers, by the time you leave this modest but hugely compelling little movie, you may feel that these four  young men and their wonderful wrestling coach have become part of your own family.

This is because Ms Herbert, shown at right, and Ms Belfer (below), along with Mr. Proenza (shown two photos below), who did the ace editing on the film,

became so close to their wrestlers, their families and and the team's coach that they were able to obtain footage in which emotions are real and often quite raw; humor is plentiful, too; then all of this has been edited so that what we see slowly grows into characters who are so much more than mere wrestlers. We view their young lives, as well as those of their family, friends and -- in one case, paramor -- as fraught, tentative yet hopeful.

Wrestle, finally, is about much more than merely winning the game,

though the suspense and hope registered along this route, is terrific, too.

In addition to some interesting wrestling -- we see enough of the game to begin to appreciate the moves of the team members that lead to their wins or losses -- we also view the boys' love for family, coach and each other.

Three of the team members are black (Jaquan, Jamario and Jailen) and one white (Teague), and as the film takes place in Huntsville, Alabama, at J.O. Johnson High School, which had been on the state's list of "failing schools" for years, we also note the local cops' interactions with two of the (surprise, surprise!) black team members. Race seems less of a problem among the team mates than in society at large. (The movie's sweetest, most tender moment comes as Teague places his head on Jaquan's shoulder.)

The co-directors actually lived in Huntsville full-time while filming, and this must in part account for the enormous intimacy achieved here, as well as for the filmmakers' ability to be in the right place at the right time so often.

The four boys are wonderfully diverse; we root for them all, including their coach. And, yes, he's white, but I hope we don't have to hear any more bullshit about why we should not show a white man helping poor, deprived black kids. (For anyone who insists upon that, may I recommend you read this splendid and appropriate article, The Trouble With Uplift by Adolf Reed from that great progressive magazine, The Baffler.) Who wins and who loses will surprise and move you. And the final end-credit notes regarding Where are they now? will do the same.

In terms of intimacy and accomplishment, Wrestle is also on a part with 2017's wonderful documentary, Night School. And though we learn the usual things we'd expect from a documentary about a team hoping to win a championship, the filmmakers seem to deliberately stop short of providing any kind of actual "happy ending."

The lives of these boys have barely begun, yet already, the challenges ahead seem massive. This movie will entertain you, sure, but it will also make you think and feel and care and, yes, wrestle with the idea of what America was and is and could be. I mean, really: what more could you ask from a movie today? Oh, right: explosions, car chases and lots of special effects.

From Oscilloscope Films and running 96 minutes, Wrestle opens this Friday, February 22, in New York City at the Village East Cinema, and on Friday, March 1, in Los Angeles at the Monica Film Center. I can't find any other between-the-coasts screenings listed on the film's web site, but perhaps once the rave reviews and great world-of-mouth appear after opening, we'll see more availability around the rest of the country. Hope so!

A non-movie about a non-event: HEADING HOME--THE TALE OF TEAM ISRAEL opens

So full of cheapjack, rah-rah, hooray-for-Israel propaganda that it had me grinding my teeth, HEADING HOME: THE TALE OF TEAM ISRAEL has little of the sort of spirit, talent or storytelling smarts of, say, On the Map, the 2016 documentary about the 1977 victory of the Tel Aviv basketball team. And before you shout antiSemitism!, do check out other of the many reviews of Israeli documentaries, narrative films and/or Holocaust-themed films on the TrustMovies blog. But this one, directed by the threesome of Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller and Jeremy Newberger (the trio earlier gave us the much better doc, Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie), proves so hammer-it-home obvious, repetitive and unnecessary as it insists upon covering what turns out to be something of a non-event in a manner that ends up as pretty much a non-movie that it left me angry and annoyed at having wasted yet another hour-and-a-half.

Beginning with the fact that this Team Israel (above) is made up of quite a few American players who had never before set foot in Israel (a point also made here by one of the members of a competing team) and continuing through endless plugs for the little middle eastern country that claims, once again in this film, to be the area's only democracy (tell that to the Palestinians in the West Bank who endure constant attacks from the "settlers" even as the Israeli authorities stand by but do nothing),

there is hardly a cliche left unturned here -- from the meaning of "mensch" (the team's mascot, above) to leaving a prayer in the Wailing Wall (at bottom), frolicking on the beach (below), and even getting a typical "tourist" tour of the place. Overall, the film seems as though it was engendered by the Israeli Chamber of Commerce.

While the various team members we meet (and meet and meet) seem to be nice enough guys, this is hardly worth building a movie around, and it turns out that we see damned little of the actual baseball games played, culminating in.... but why spoil the non-suspense?  I am no doubt over-reacting to this very mediocre movie, and it may be that there was a story worth telling here. The result, as seen here however, is something that I can only imagine appealing to Jews, and at that, the kind who insist on hearing and seeing only wonderful things about the country of Israel.

From Menemsha Films and running 87 minutes, Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel opens here in South Florida this Friday, February 8, in Delray Beach and Lake Worth at the Movies of Delray and Lake Worth; in Boca Raton at the Regal Shadowood 16 and Living Room Theaters; in Tamarac at The Last Picture Show; in Fort Lauderdale at the Classic Gateway Theatre; and in Aventura at the AMC Aventura 24. 

Seth Greenleaf's F(L)AG FOOTBALL takes a cursory look at some gay sports teams

There are a number of GLBT men and women who love sports, either to play and/or follow. TrustMovies does not count himself among these. Still, he's found over the years a number of sports movies, narrative or documentary, to be worthwhile. You might think that the new doc, F(L)AG FOOTBALL -- directed by Seth Greenleaf and tracing some of the history and current status of the now-national gay football league and some of its players -- might be among them. If so,  just barely.

Mr. Greenleaf's approach is scattered, to put it mildly (the filmmaker is shown at left and below). He moves us from team to team, concentrating most on those from New York, Los Angeles and Phoenix -- which, as I recall from his movie, were the original three teams in the gay league. The league's size has now grown to some 20-odd teams of various abilities, with these three usually at the top of the heap.

We meet a lot of different players (too many, really) and get a bit of the background of some of them -- the most interesting of which is the filmmaker's contrasting of the coming-out of two of them to their mothers, one of whom calls her son an "abomination," the other who cradles her boy in love but also warns him, "Don't tell anyone else about this."

What unites these players, surprisingly, is less their sexual preference than their love of football. In fact, by far the most interesting section of the doc is devoted to our learning that not all of the players here are actually gay. Huh? Yeah.

According to league rules, you can have a maximum of 20 percent non-gay players. Evidently, some guys just love playing football so much that who they play for or with matters much less than the game itself. We even meet a player on one of the teams -- New York, I think -- who has transgendered.

The jealousies that occur when a straight player is allowed to become the starting quarterback are alluded to but not explored in any depth, though when one straight player must be cut from a team (due to that 20 per cent rule), he angrily retorts that, hell, he might even be gay. And then slows that down to "Well, maybe bisexual. Anyway, it's nobody's business!"

At moments like these, the movie comes more alive. Otherwise it's far too much rah-rah-rah and we've-gotta-win kind of thing. And while the film brings up some worthwhile questions -- Is the gay league a kind of modern-day "negro league"? And if it really is a gay league, then why aren't all the players gay? (Did any whites play for the Negro Baseball League? Doubtful, but then skin color's harder to disguise than sexual preference) --  none of these gets explored.  The film finally ends by tracking the outcome of the league's series that year -- in which, yes, NY, L.A., and Phoenix are again in the final rounds.

If the goal here -- and it certainly seems to be -- is to convince us that gay football is every bit as difficult and challenging as that of the straight variety (one player we meet actually played in the NFL), and that the players here are just as good as anywhere else, that goal is almost immediately lost when you notice early on that the gay league plays "touch" football rather than "tackle."

Distributed by Abramorama and running a too-long-considering-the-little-we-learn-from-it 97 minutes, F(l)ag Football opens this Friday, June 16, for a week-long New York City run at the Cinépolis Chelsea cinema. Elsewhere? No idea. And the film's web site does not (except for that NYC showing) give a clue.

ON THE MAP: Dani Menkin's ode to world basketball and the surprising '77 Israeli team

I suspect you will have to be neither a huge basketball fan nor a staunch lover of Israel to still be amazed and moved by the new documentary, ON THE MAP. As written and directed by Dani Menkin (who gave us the wonderful Dolphin Boy, as well as the more recent and not-so-hot narrative film, Is That You?), this sprightly, enthusiastic movie introduces us to a certain Maccabi team from Tel Aviv that made sports and Israeli history back in 1977 by putting Israel, as its captain tell us, "On the map--not just in sports but in everything!"

Mr. Menkin, shown at right, is clearly besotted with love for this team, and he manages to share that with his audience in a way that is exciting, refreshing, and even sometimes heart-stopping. It helps, of course, that the story here is top-of-the-line: a come-from-behind, success-despite-all-odds tale of hard work plus talent that pays off bigtime. And Menkin tells it supremely well, using a smart combination of history, culture, some first-class interviews, and archival footage of the players and their games that brings all this to fine, immediate life.

We see the players then (above) and now (below), and we hear from most of them, too. One of them, Jim Boatwright, is now dead, but his ex-wife makes a fine substitute -- funny, appealing and moving, as she tells us of those days and times and what it all meant to her husband.

The captain of the team -- its star player and the man who most helped bring these players all together -- was Tal Brody (below), whom we see in action on and off the court. We also hear from Brody's friend and co-player (some decades back), Bill Walton, who clearly is still moved and amazed by what these Maccabis did. Hearing Walton talk about all this is one of the documentary's highlights.

We learn how history -- from the creation of Israel to its various wars to the 1972 Munich Olympics -- played into the importance of what happened in 1977. We also meet the one black player on the team, Aulcie Perry (below, center), and learn how a plate full of cakes determined his fate with the team, and how and why he later converted to Judaism.

We're there as Moshe Dayan (above, right) congratulates the team, as well as when Prime Minister Rabin resigns from office on the very day of one of the team's most important games. The anecdotes here are well-chosen, pointed and entertaining -- adding up to a first-class documentary that will have you on the edge of your seat, cheering, holding your breath, and finally maybe shedding a tear or two.

From Hey Jude Productions and running just 85 minutes, On The Map opens in Los Angeles this coming Friday, November 25, at Laemmle's Royal and in New York City on December 9 at the Cinema Village. Click here, then click on SCREENINGS, to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters. There will be personal appearances in Los Angeles and perhaps elsewhere, too. Check the theaters' listings for dates and times.

For love of the game: Bobbito Garcia & Kevin Couliau's DOIN' IT IN THE PARK proves one of our best basketball movies

From its first action-filled frames and the filmmakers' gracious nod to the inventor of basketball (James Naismith) and what he hoped to achieve, DOIN' IT IN THE PARK: Pick-up basketball, New York City, makes a great case for this played-everywhere-and-anywhere neighborhood game as THE be-all and end-all of sport love stories.

Further, as this tremen-dously entertaining documentary moves on, and we meet some of the great pick-up players, as well as some notable ex-NBA stars who talk about their own experience with pick-up basketball, it becomes increasingly clear that the filmmakers have stuck documentary gold.

Those filmmakers --Bobbito Garcia (shown at left, from New York), who also wrote and narrates, and Kevin Couliau (below, right, from France), who doubles as cinematog-

rapher -- have together come up with a movie that is boundlessly informative and almost as full of energy and surprise and any of those pick-up games they show us in the course of their film. TrustMovies says this as someone who has rarely cared a fig about the sport. For those who already love it and/or play it, the film will be a must-see. In addition to the men (mostly black) who play these pick-up games, the movie includes a couple of talented white ones, along with one section on women who play and another on deaf players (who knew?) and what basketball has come to mean for our ever-growing prison population.

Over 90 days, which pretty much lines up with the three summer months, on 180 courts across the five boroughs of New York City, the filmmakers ply their trade, while discovering some relevant, funny and surprising things. "If we didn't have a ball or hoop, we'd use rolled-up socks and a wire hanger," notes one old-time player.

If another happened to arrive so early that  no one else was there to play, "I'd play by myself, right hand against left hand, until somebody showed up!"

We learn all about the different pick-up games that are played -- from HORSE to 21 to something called Boots Up (above: "You won't find this in the NBA!" we're told). Full of anecdotes, reminiscences, even some rap poetry and a lesson on the use of trash talk (below), visually the film is edited so fast with near-constant narration that you may find yourself a little out of breath. But you won't be bored.

The movie's also full of terrific archival film and photos (notice those afros, below) and is sometimes very funny, too. "It was a home away from home," notes one player of his playground: "They used to change my diapers in this park!" The filmmakers also show us the game as it sometimes is, with players leaving the court beaten -- and even bloody.

The best of all pick-up basketball locations, it turns out, is Manhattan's little vest-pocket playground on 6th Avenue at West 3rd Street, right across from the IFC Center. We spend a lot of time there, where we meet one of the most surprising of our men, Jack Ryan, the white, 6-feet tall dunker (below) who is now 49 years old but hardly looks it and plays like a black man. "The best eight-letter name I've ever heard in my life!" notes one of his co-players.

We learn about Earl Manigault, aka the Goat, who is the only player to have had an actual park named after him, and was "the father of the neighborhood" until he got hooked on heroin and turned to crime to pay for his habit. (Filmmaker Garcia, who played pro ball for a time, was mentored by Manigault.)

Once the end credits have rolled, don't go away, for there's a five-minute segment in which we watch our two filmmakers play against each other in many of the parks around the boroughs. Really: This is one fucking gem of a documentary.

Doin' It in The Park -- from Goldcrest Films and running 82 minutes -- after a rousing success at festivals in foreign cities around the globe, opens this coming Wednesday in its home territory, New York City, at the Maysles Cinema, as well as simultaneously being released in the UK. Its worldwide digital release took place at the beginning of the month, and it will have its World Tour, presented by Nike, from now through this coming August. (The movie soundtrack will be released on June 1st.)

Look, Ma -- one hand! Franklin Martin's LONG SHOT: THE KEVIN LAUE STORY

If you follow sports extensively and alertly, as I do not, you may have already heard of a certain young man -- Kevin Laue -- a California boy who plays phenomenal basketball while possessing only one hand. As we learn in this intelligent and moving documentary titled LONG SHOT: THE KEVIN LAUE STORY, Kevin was born with his umbilical cord wrapped not just around his neck (as sometimes happens) but also around his arm, which impeded blood flow and prevented that hand from growing, and may also have saved his life by preventing the cord from choking him.

The film, written, produced and directed by Franklin Martin (shown at left) begins in a cemetery, at the grave of Kevin's father, who almost immediately takes on enor-mous presence -- which only grows throughout the movie as we learn more about the relationship between this father and the son he drove so hard. From an early age, Kevin (on poster, top, and below) was pushed into sports, particularly soccer, which, given his physical condition, made sense, but which he didn't much like. Soon basket-ball became his chosen sport.

We follow along with the boy as he gets through high school, changing schools and coaches so that he can better learn and play, contending with mocking and ridicule, and finally an injury that, occurring as it does just when sports scouts are checking out the top high school players, leaves him unseen in their eyes. (Fouls are called on this kid far too often; it seem as though refs and other players simply don't know how to react to his stump.) His goal? To play Division One College Basketball, which I don't believe any person missing one hand had yet done.

Once Kevin's leg heals, it's off to an eastern military prep school noted for its basketball team and its exceptional coach (at right) who works his boys hard and but also seems to care enough about them to see to it that they get viewed in action by the college scouts. What happens to Kevin in this regard is telling. While it's true that you cannot easily believe, simply on hearsay, how well this kid plays, seeing is, or ought to be, believing. Yet his playing this well in game after game seems not to matter. He's just too different, and the "other," once again, is enough to scare most folk away. College sports are already under a cloud of scandal and don't need more problems. Yet the fear that scouts and coaches seem to have of taking a chance on someone this different seems enough to put off almost every one of them. And it leaves Kevin, and us, not a little disappointed. But, then...

Along the way Kevin also gets to meet ex-President "W", above, and though this thrills him, seeing him meet with an ought-to-be-convicted war criminal did not set my heart aflutter. Probably the biggest thrill here, even for those who may not care much for sports or basketball, is watching Mr. Laue play ball. Its amazing, exciting and inspiring. So's the movie. And when, as we learn more about Kevin's Dad and his relationship to him and how this has changed rather hugely over time (his father died when Kevin was but 10 years old), all this adds another layer of meaning and emotion to the film.

Long Shot -- from Dutchmen Films and running 90 minutes -- opens this coming Friday, October 26, in New York City at the Quad Cinema. I would hope that more playdates around the country will be offered but I can find no mention of them anywhere yet. Eventually, however, a DVD ought to be available, so stick this one on your Netflix or Blockbuster list.