October 11, 2009

Peter Berg Wayne Gretzky Doc Online

Filmmaker Peter Berg, the man who directed Very Bad Things, Friday Night Lights and Hancock, made a documentary about the Wayne Gretzky trade that shocked Canada back in August of 1988. The doc was made for an ESPN series, which is unfortunately not available in Canada, called 30 for 30. The series is to commemorate ESPN's 30th birthday and the network commissioned a series of filmmakers and interesting people to make documentaries about compelling sports stories from the "ESPN era." This series should prove to be quite interesting. Also in the series Rain Man director - and Baltimore native - Barry Levinson's take on the Colts leaving Maryland for Indianapolis. Ice Cube directs a doc on the relationship between citizens of Los Angeles with the L.A. Raiders; Steve Nash helms a piece on fellow Canadian Terry Fox's inspiring Marathon of Hope while Bull Durham director Ron Shelton looks at Michael Jordan's brief - but fascinating - foray into minor league baseball. Berg's installment, titled Kings Ransom, actually screened at TIFF, but I was out of town and unable to check it out. TSN recently ran the doc here in Canada. I would recommend catching it if they decide to re-run the film.

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