African American baseball players from Morris Brown College Atlanta, from THE LEAGUE, a Magnolia Pictures release. © Library of Congress. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
(TRENTON, NJ) -- On Sunday, October 22, 2023, the Trenton Film Society will host a special single-day screening of the documentary The League, directed by prize-winning filmmaker Sam Pollard (MLK/FBI). Using previously unearthed archival footage and never-before-seen interviews with legendary players like Satchel Paige and Buck O’Neil, as well as celebrated Hall of Famers Willie Mays and Hank Aaron who started out in the Negro Leagues, the film tells a story of African Americans in baseball before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, and the unforeseen consequences of integration. Also featured in the documentary is Effa Manley, the activist owner of the Newark Eagles.
The screening will be at the Mill Hill Playhouse (205 E. Front Street) in Trenton, New Jersey at 4:00pm. Tickets are $10 and available for purchase online. Running time is 103 minutes.
"Baseball – I grew up in the 1960s being a huge baseball fan," explained Director Sam Pollard. "My dad’s favorite team was the St. Louis Cardinals, so that became my favorite team. They had a roster of great players, many of whom happened to be Black or Latino, like Bill White, Curt Flood, Orlando Cepeda, Lou Brock. They were a team that excited ball fans during that decade and would go on to win the 1964 and 1967 World Series. Now I knew who Jackie Robinson was and that it was because of him Blacks had integrated the Major Leagues in 1947. But what I did not know much about in 1964 at the age of 14 was that he had come out of the Negro Leagues and that the Negro Leagues had been home to Black and Latino ballplayers who had to play segregated baseball during the height of the Jim Crow era. But being the curious young man that I was, I began to do research about the Negro Leagues and some of the teams: the Kansas City Monarchs, the Homestead Greys, the Pittsburgh Crawfords, and the phenomenal players like the legendary Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, Monte Irvin, and Rube Foster, who helped create the first iteration of the Negro Leagues in the 1920s. Back then, I did not know that almost 60 years later I would direct a documentary about the rich legacy of the Negro Leagues.
Sam Pollard, director of THE LEAGUE, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
"My vision was simple," continued Pollard. "Find voices of those who played the game, surround them with historians and fans of the Negro Leagues, use as much archival footage and stills I could find and, to add drama, shoot period recreations and create animation that would add another level of cinematic texture to the film. Fortunately, I was able to find the voices of former Negro League players because Byron Motley (whose dad, Bob Motley, had been a Negro League Umpire) had interviewed and recorded many former players years ago. It was a treasure trove of wonderful voices and added immensely to the telling of the story. Also, fortunately many of the die-hard Negro League historians had access or knew where to find footage that I had never seen, which added enormously to visualizing the story.
"As a filmmaker and director, I could not have been better served in having all the above elements to tell such a rich and powerful story," said Pollard.
The Trenton Film Society is a non-profit organization with a mission to entertain, educate and engage the diverse Greater Trenton, New Jersey area through film. They bring together filmmakers, film professionals, and area residents of all ages and cultural and socio-economic backgrounds to build a better understanding of filmmaking, to explore the issues and perspectives in a variety of films–from local to international–and to build an appreciation of the film arts.
Bob Motley in the air, from THE LEAGUE, a Magnolia Pictures release. © Byron Motley. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
