Photo publication: Chicago Reader cover page, Week of 02/26
LEFT FIELD the movie is out.
…which, in a deliberately fortuitous way (and vice versa) earned me two publications in the same week:
One for the front cover (!) of the Chicago Reader and the other for TimeOut Chicago, two of the most prominent publications in the city. So I can’t really complain 😉 In fact i’m rather psyched about it, and yet I have to maintain a certain amount of dignity and a low profile about this, for a number of reasons.
Left Field is about the very kickball league I belong to. It was shot mostly during the 2007 season as a way to portray a community of young adults in their late twenties to mid-thirties, shedding their social inhibitions and letting it all hang out every summer sunday at drunken kickball games. Essentially, the movie aims to show how commonly held perceptions of adulthood can be, and ARE refuted once a week, through playing a game for children and consuming (and eventually abusing) life. But it also shows these kids are still able to maintain a sense of self, and a strong sense of community.
What the movie crew didn’t see coming, though, was the tragic accidental death of one of the league’s central characters, KC Haywood, who was arguably one of the kindest guys of the whole league and beyond. All of a sudden, the movie project ceased to be a mere portrayal of a community’s weekly debauchery: it showed how a group of degenerate punks come together in strength and humility in the face of tragedy. So needless to say that the movie is not only good, it is deeply relevant.
The strangeness of watching a movie about the very community you hang out with every summer is difficult to describe. Far from being any of the characters featured in the movie , I had the unique experience of being (mostly) part of the league , but also part of the photo crew, and part of the audience in the sense that although these are people I know, I have never gotten to know them this closely. It’s a tremendously confusing position to find oneself in, and puts me in the least likely category of people to be writing a review of the film.
So i’ll limit myself to sharing some shots from that season and from the film shooting. I feel that these photos – and I am infinitely thankful to Chris Batte, the film producer, for his support – have become part of the kickball community itself, for having been projected so many times and now published as the public face of the movie and the league. I have gotten the unique experience and honor to have a lot of these shots shown at the movie opening as well, and i’m incredibly thankful for anyone who has shown their appreciation on that evening. It goes straight to the heart.
These all go out to the memory of K.C. Haywood (R.I.P.)
I am also posting newer photos from the KC Haywood memorial All-Star game, which haven’t yet been distributed.
The Pen and the Sword 