Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color line in 1947, but it took another generation of Black and Latino players to make the sport truly open to all. Playing in remote minor-league towns, these were the men who, before they could live their big-league dreams, first had to beat Jim Crow.
James 'Mudcat' GrantJames "Mudcat" GrantGrover 'Deacon' JonesGrover "Deacon" JonesJimmy WynnJimmy WynnJ.R. RichardJ.R. RichardTony PérezTony Pérez
Orlando CepedaOrlando CepedaEnos CabellEnos CabellOctavio “Cookie” RojasOctavio “Cookie” RojasOrlando PeñaOrlando PeñaBobby TolanBobby TolanDocumentary on the civil rights activist, Viola Liuzzo, who was murdered in 1965 as she campaigned for black suffrage in Selma, Alabama, and its effect on her family.
Documentary about German soccer manager Rudi Assauer, who'd shaped an era at Schalke 04 Football Club by achieving athletic success as well as saving the license to compete in the Bundesliga in economically difficult times.
The first and only Taiwanese player for the New York Yankees, Chien-Ming Wang held many titles: American League Wins Leader, World Series Champion, Olympian, Time 100 Most Influential, and The Pride of Taiwan. He had it all - until a 2008 injury forever altered the course of his career. Late Life: The Chien-Ming Wang Story - named after the late sinking action on his signature pitch - follows the rise and fall of the international icon as he fights his way back into the Major Leagues through endless rehab programs and lengthy stints away from home, carrying the weight of the world on his battered shoulder. A poignant and intimate account of Wang’s steadfast quest, Late Life tells the story of a man who is unwilling to give up and unable to let go.
Starting with a long and lyrical overture, evoking the origins of the Olympic Games in ancient Greece, Riefenstahl covers twenty-one athletic events in the first half of this two-part love letter to the human body and spirit, culminating with the marathon, where Jesse Owens became the first track and field athlete to win four gold medals in a single Olympics.
Part two of Leni Riefenstahl's monumental examination of the 1938 Olympic Games, the cameras leave the main stadium and venture into the many halls and fields deployed for such sports as fencing, polo, cycling, and the modern pentathlon, which was won by American Glenn Morris.
Through the figure of Lakota activist and community organizer Madonna Thunder Hawk, this inspiring film traces the untold story of countless Native American women struggling for their people's civil rights. Spanning several decades, Christina D. King and Elizabeth A. Castle's documentary charts Thunder Hawk's lifelong commitment, from her early involvement in the American Indian Movement (AIM), to her pivotal role in the founding of Women of All Red Nations, to her heartening presence at Standing Rock alongside thousands protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline. She passed her dedication and hunger for change to her daughter Marcy, even if that often meant feeling like comrades-in-arms more than mother and child. Through rare archival material—including amazing footage of AIM's occupation of Wounded Knee—and an Indigenous style of circular storytelling, Warrior Women rekindles the memories and legacy of the Red Power movement's matriarchs.
Documentary short about an anual football game being helf in Florence, Tuscany in Italy dating back to medieval times.
They do not earn millions, yet they are happy nonetheless: Maria Meissner (87), Josef “Sepp” Schmid (74), and Rudi Egerer (65) have spent most of their lives working for FC Bayern. Maria still cleanses the trophies nowadays, Sepp still washes and prepares the jerseys of the players in the basement, and Rudi is still the bus driver. They are simple people who may have access to the glamorous world of the big stars, but who never wanted to adapt to the ‘modern times’ unconditionally. They have remained side characters and experience their club from a special angle: Being witnesses of the development from a people’s sport to star cult and commercialisation.
30 years after the 1985 Chicago Bears ran roughshod over the rest of the NFL en route to winning the only Super Bowl title in franchise history, they remain one of the most legendary teams in league history. From their dominating defense to their swaggering offense and their firebrand of a head coach, the Bears of that vintage team were a force to be reckoned with, and it’s easy to see why their legacy has remained strong. Big personalities like Mike Ditka and Jim McMahon, combined with the ferocious attitudes of players like Mike Singletary and Steve McMichael made for a volatile mix that ended up carrying the Bears to a 15-1 record and to an emphatic victory in Super Bowl XX.
In the late 1990s, DJ Set Free, had the idea to set some streetball highlights to a soundtrack of emerging rap music. The results culminated in the And1 Mixtape, a series of VHS tapes that forever transformed the game of basketball.
Strength Wars: The Movie follows the lives of eight athletes preparing for the ultimate strength competition. The prize? To be labeled the strongest man in the world. Putting two different types of athletes against each other, Strength Wars is the ultimate proving ground to test any given athlete's true strength. Eight athletes. Eight athletic disciplines. One winner. The film highlights eight men from across the globe including Larry Wheels, Terron Beckham, Blaine Sumner, NDO Champ, Big Neechi, Jerry Pritchett, Anabolic Horse, and Leonidas Arkona. Welcome to Strength Wars. May the best man win.
Mission Antarctic is the story of an expedition to the world's end for Xavier de Le Rue, multiple freeride world champion and former olympian, along with Lucas Debari in search of a new paradise for steep riding.
A documentary on the late American entertainer Dean Reed, who became a huge star in East Germany after settling there in 1973.
Roller derby legend Ann Calvello, now in her 70s, refuses to give up the limelight. She is still bashing heads on the banked track of any upstart league that will have her and still acting like the bawdy bad girl of the Derby, even as she bags groceries at her part-time job at Safeway. In the two years the documentary follows her, Ann simultaneously grapples with her declining ability to skate and her determination to be the first professional athlete to have competed continuously in a sport for six decades.
Rare archive footage and Jocky Wilson's own words tell the story of the rise and fall of a cult Scottish sportman. Featuring interviews with his friends and darts contemporaries.
Journalist David Farrier stumbles upon a mysterious tickling competition online. As he delves deeper he comes up against fierce resistance, but that doesn’t stop him getting to the bottom of a story stranger than fiction.
The most high powered and high profile motorcycle Championship in the world never fails to deliver on the promise of a thrilling season. With Marc Márquez and Andrea Dovizioso in the hunt for the title with just two rounds to go how could it be anything other than exciting? Five winners in a season might not be approaching 2016’s thriller for sheer diversity but it certainly isn’t giving anything away in the drama stakes. The Ducatisti have had a particularly nervy season with Dovizioso becoming the first Ducati rider to lead a championship since Casey Stoner in 2009. Could we see the fairytale ending they so crave (and deserve)? However the result turns out you can be sure the Review will be an absolute stormer, packed with three hours of the very finest highlights, showing all the important moments as the leaders battle for every vital advantage in the title chase.