Monday Jul 17, 2023
The League / Film School Radio interview with Director Sam Pollard
Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Sam Pollard (MLK/FBI), and executive produced by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson (Oscar-winning SUMMER OF SOUL), Tariq Trotter (DESCENDANT), and produced by RadicalMedia , THE LEAGUE celebrates the dynamic journey of Negro League baseball's triumphs and challenges through the first half of the twentieth century. The story is told through previously unearthed archival footage and never-before-seen interviews with legendary players like Satchel Paige and Buck O’Neil – whose early careers paved the way for the Jackie Robinson era – as well as celebrated Hall of Famers Willie Mays and Hank Aaron who started out in the Negro Leagues. From entrepreneurial titans Cumberland Posey and Gus Greenlee, whose intense rivalry fueled the rise of two of the best baseball teams ever to play the game, to Effa Manley, the activist owner of the Newark Eagles and the only woman ever admitted to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, THE LEAGUE explores Black baseball as an economic and social pillar of Black communities and a stage for some of the greatest athletes to ever play the game, while also examining the unintended consequences of integration. Director Sam Pollard (Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power, Citizen Ashe, Tiger) joins us for a conversation on the multi-layered history of the Black ballplayer’s quest for inclusion, compensation and respect. The story begins in 1890’s Jim Crow laws forcing out the few Black players already playing with white players in the nascent professional leagues and culminates with the signing of Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson to a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers and soon after Larry Dolby to a contract with the American League’s Cleveland Indians.