| Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek (July 2007; screening on Starz in August 2007) Director: Ward Serrill
Starring (documentary subjects): Roosevelt High School, Coach Bill Resler, Darnellia Russell. Narrator: Chris "Ludacris" Bridges In-a-nutshell: The beauty of competition documentaries is, despite the depth of research into the players or teams vying for the filmmaker's focus, the elements innate to human unpredictability dictate to whom the filmmaking gods grant great stories. And The Heart of the Game is a helluva great story. Characters are divided along socio-economic and sexual lines - some suffer the cruelty of man's worst abuses and others suffer exigencies that seem to suppress the opportunities for many in America's less fortunate communities. Narrated by Ludacris, Ward Serrill tracks Seattle's Rough Riders, the Roosevelt High School basketball team coached with carnal instinct by Bill Resler. Resler labels his teams "pack of wolves," "pride of lions" and "tropical storm" in his mandate to transform them into winners. Dutifully served with an arch nemesis in the neighboring high school's Garfield Bulldogs, Coach Resler runs his principal packs with individual leaders who take Roosevelt to new heights in Washington State rankings, but it is only when Darnellia Russell, a local black girl, joins the almost all-white team that Roosevelt really howls - and the documentary finds its beating, and sometimes breaking, heart. Russell's story, as the coach tells it, is "one for the ages." Born to play ball, Russell must overcome academic obstacles, and then the physical, societal and bureaucratic pressures of pregnancy, to fight for the right to compete on the court. The filmmaker does what great documentarians do best, and that is allow the story to tell itself through the editing and avoid heavy-handed narration. One can only imagine the skills summoned in cutting seven years of coverage into one beautifully crafted feature that feels quick in the telling, delivers big on personality and seems to pass no judgment on its subject or its subject's choices. For his efforts, Serrill's feature premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, has been awarded winner's laurels by film festivals in Maui and Portland, picked up the Writers Guild of America's best documentary screenplay nomination (however ironic that honor might seem), and received the Billie Jean King Award from the Women's Sports Foundation - worthy receipts all. |
