new disc sport documentary (CSTV)

[Pedro Mc]

A friend at the Journalism school received CSTV spam advertisement for this new disc sport documentary.

Flying Saucers:The Ultimate Frisbee Story.

I haven't heard any reviews.

http://store.fansonly.com/marketplace/s ... t_id=72111

Later,
Peter Mc
http://ultimate.mu.org/mdsc/index.html

www.ThisIsUltimate.com

[Pedro Mc]

Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2005 15:19:44 +0000


NEW JERSEY JEWISH NEWS


Local filmmaker’s Frisbee flick is set to land ahead of schedule


by Johanna Ginsberg
NJJN Staff Writer


Local filmmaker James Ford Nussbaum may have thought his Frisbee film would take a year to produce, but just three months after beginning the shoot, he has released screening copies of Flying Saucers: The Ultimate Frisbee Story.


“I’m amazed at how quickly it all came together,” Nussbaum said. And true to the promise he made to NJ Jewish News when he began shooting the documentary, it is “more like Weird NJ than a PBS film.”


The documentary, about the birth and popularity of the team sport known as Ultimate, includes plenty of shots of Maplewood’s Columbia High School, where the sport was pioneered in 1968 (see related story). It includes interviews with members of the original team, including Hollywood mogul Joel Silver and attorney Jonny Hines, two of the three players considered among the sport’s founding fathers. Footage also includes a freestyle performance at a Rose Bowl game; teams playing in Wildwood, Maplewood, and Whippany; and plenty of flying discs sailing through the air to a Vivaldi accompaniment.


Nussbaum has entered the film in New Jersey’s Black Maria Film and Video Festival and has been engaged in talks with College Sports Television to help with its placement, packaging, and marketing. Although he had originally told NJJN he would try to interest Wham-O, the Frisbee manufacturer, in the film, he has not yet contacted the company. He has, however, been working closely with the Ultimate Players Association throughout the project.


Nussbaum, a resident of Morristown, grew up in South Orange and celebrated becoming a bar mitzva at Temple Sharey Tefilo-Israel. He played Ultimate in the late ’70s and early ’80s at Columbia High. “It’s been great to reconnect with the people who are responsible for my varsity involvement in high school,” he said.


His film does face a bit of competition. Ultimate Players Association is about to release Ultimate: The First Four Decades, a 208-page coffee table-style book covering the history of Ultimate, with an accompanying DVD. But, Nussbaum told NJJN, he wasn’t worried, and considers the two projects “complementary.”


Nussbaum will find out if others agree as he pursues various avenues to recoup his investment in the project, to date made entirely with his own funds.


In any case, filmmaking has its side benefits. After shooting a group who happen to play every Sunday morning in Maplewood at 9:30 (a convenient hour for the many players who drop their children off at religious school before the game), he decided to return and join their game as a regular player. “It’s the first time I’ve played regularly since college,” he told NJJN.


Nussbaum said he hopes the film will be of interest to anyone playing the sport and plans to make it available through the Internet later this year.


For more information, contact Galileo Productions, LLC — where Nussbaum serves as producer and director — at 973-328-1163 or jnussbaum@galileoproductions.com.


Johanna Ginsberg can be reached at jginsberg@njjewishnews.com.
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