A week from today we share the We are Family documentary. Posters and tickets are made. Invitations sent. Hor d’oeuvres for VIP party ordered. I’m looking forward to seeing many friends from our IPS and Tech family.
As I reflect on the work of making this movie over the last six years I am thankful. Here’s my list of thankfulness.
- I’m thankful for the Tech coaches who in the summer of 2013 gave me permission to film the season.
- I’m thankful for my son Julian who was with me from day one shooting footage and who organized all the video files.
- I’m thankful for Tremayne Reed who made a killer trailer for the movie and who helped edit the movie.
- I’m thankful for all the others who worked on the video part of this project: Paul Baumgarten, Tanner Halbig, and Casey Roberts who let us use his studio.
- I’m thankful for all the musicians who made the story come alive with their great music.
- I’m thankful for the players, coaches, fans, alumni, etc. who were willing to be interviewed.
- I’m thankful for the 110 Kickstarter supporters who gave 25K to make the making of this movie possible.
- I’m thankful for the sponsors and donors who made this exclusive screening event possible.
- I’m thankful for IPS where my kids went to school when we lived in Indy. I hope this movie helps to change the way IPS is viewed.
- And I’m especially thankful for my right hand man David Lichty who worked long and hard to make this movie. The small financial compensation I was able to give him does not come close to representing the hundreds of hours of blood, toil, sweet and tears he gave to this project.
But most of all I’m thankful for my family who supported me and sacrificed a lot as I worked on the film
- Jenny has graciously allowed me to spend a significant amount of money to make this film.
- And each of my kids gave generously to the Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the movie. For example, my son Judah who was in high school at the time, gave $600.
- Finally, Jenny and the kids have had to live with my stress, my late nights, my absence, etc. to make this movie. They have made real sacrifices along the way.
Jenny, you are the wind beneath my wings. My kids, I you are my strength and my joy!
In sum, I’m thankful for all the collaborators who have brought the movie to completion and for this opportunity to share this inspiring story with a broader audience.
We were at the exclusive screening. We were at a lot of the games and the final championship game.
Yes, we would recommend this movie to the general public. Even though it is specific to the Arsenal Tech Titans, of Indianapolis, it could have been about any inner city school and basketball team that has a reputation for failure. It should be shown in its entirety. The highlight for us was being able to watch something, in grand scale, that we had witnessed in person. Our least favorite part was the continued stressing by the coaches, the players, and some of the fans that kept repeating how the team were role models. A couple of times would have been more than adequate in our opinion. It really is a “feel good” movie; with the emphasis being that if you believe in a system, a program, yourself and your friends (teammates) that anything is possible and obtainable. We do believe that a broader audience would enjoy this movie, inside the city and nationwide. Other than the overstating of how the players were role models, one of the things we thought that could have been shortened or edited out, was coverage of each game. Also; since the movie did stress how this team, these players were role models, we felt that the movie should have mentioned something about what each player has accomplished since winning the championship game. The movie was almost 3 hours long and not once did I ever feel like I needed to get up.
Overall, loved the movie. Two thumbs up! Or in this case “eight thumbs up” as there were four of us at this screening.
One comment on the exclusive screening, we did think it would have been nice if before or after the movie was shown, if the players and coaches would have been brought up on stage to be recognized.