ONE GOLDEN SUMMER Opens the 61st Chicago International Film Festival
Bonnie DeShong
The Chicago International Film Festival opened on October 15th to a sold-out crowd with the film One Golden Summer. Directed by award-winning director Kevin Shaw, produced by Betsy Steinberg and Robert Teitel, and written by screenwriter David E. Simpson.
In 2014, Chicago’s Jackie Robinson West Little League became the first all-Black team to win the Little League U.S. Baseball Championship. At the ages of twelve and thirteen years old, the team reached heights they never dreamed of. The support from people all over the world included going to the White House to meet President and First Lady Obama and having a ticker-tape parade down State Street. But it all came crashing down after a rival coach accused the team of breaking residential boundary rules. The team was stripped of all its titles and erased from the books as winners.
The film is very well done, and Kevin Shaw does an excellent job of giving a full view of events through conversations with the young athletes, now adults, the media, coaches, and parents.
I had the honor of having a lengthy conversation with Kevin. I asked him how he came to do this project. He explained that after the title had been stripped, there was a lot of legal back-and-forth between the coaches, the players, and Little League International, as well as between Jackie Robinson West. These folks battled back and forth for seven years to try to potentially reinstate the title and fix reputations among the coaches, players, and their families. He went on to say, “And so the idea then became to have a documentary to see what would happen: would the Jackie Robinson West families be able to have their title reinstated? And what would happen between this litigation, this legal fight between Jackie Robinson West, the Jackie Robinson West families, and Little League International? And Bob (Teitel) and his producing partner on this one, Betsy Steinberg, kind of reached out to me and said, ‘Would I be interested in potentially following this story and seeing what would happen?’ And of course, knowing the story really intimately, having been there in Williamsport, being in Chicago, and then my background being a lot in sports storytelling, it really was just kind of a perfect marriage.”
They began shooting, doing interviews, and conducting research in 2021. From that time to the present, they have been working on the film, which led up to the Chicago International Film Festival opening.
I asked Kevin how he felt about having that honor. “I can’t really explain it. I really can’t put it into words. I’m a Chicagoan, born and raised, grew up on 92nd and Stony Island, and had no necessarily dreams of being a filmmaker, but I certainly wanted to be a storyteller and work in television. That eventually pivoted into working in film and working in documentary film. As a young kid, I never had any real dreams of putting my work into film festivals and certainly didn’t have any thought of the possibility of opening a festival as prestigious as the Chicago International Film Festival. So I think as my career started to progress and I started to pursue opportunities to showcase my work and the stories that I was fortunate to be able to tell, the idea of, again, opening a film festival like the Chicago International Film Festival—this is the 61st year of the festival—and you look at all the filmmakers prior to me that have exhibited work there, it’s just really a who’s who in terms of cinema. I learned most recently that this is the second time the festival has opened with a documentary, so that’s a new thing as well. So, to have that kind of honor and privilege, it’s amazing. It’s amazing. We’re really, really excited for the opportunity.”
One Golden Summer doesn’t shy away from the joy and support of the team and the controversy that came after. It allows the audience to form their own opinions of the situation. I really appreciated that we got to know the players as adults and hear their voices explain how they felt at the time and now, eleven years later.
The film is compelling, eye-opening, and very well done.
I give One Golden Summer 5 out of 5 winks of the EYE.
The Chicago International Film Festival runs through October 26th.
Until next time, keep your EYE to the sky!