Update: Undefeated has won the Academy Award! Read our review of the film here.
Already appearing on our Films to See In February list, The Weinstein Company have released a trailer for their upcoming sports documentary Undefeated. One of the five films nominated for the best documentary Academy Award, the film – which follows the down-trodden team at an inner-city Memphis – has been receiving fantastic reviews since its SXSW premiere.
Although I’m not a football fan, this seems like an exceptionally well-crafted look at a series of personal stories. Forget the Super Bowl, this is the next sporting event on my radar. Knowing the Weinsteins and their heavy marketing push, I doubt this is the last time we’ll hear about this one. Directed by Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin, you can see the trailer below via Apple.
Synopsis:
Set in the inner-city of Memphis, Undefeated chronicles the Manassas Tigers 2009 football season, on and off-the-field, as they strive to win the first playoff game in the high schools 110-year history. A perennial whipping boy, in recent decades Manassas had gone so far as to sell their home games to the highest bidder, but that all changed in the spring of 2004 when Bill Courtney, a former high school football coach turned lumber salesman, volunteered to lend a hand. When he arrived, the team consisted of 17 players, some timeworn equipment and a patch of grass masquerading as a practice field. Focusing more on winning young men than football games, the football program nevertheless began resurrecting itself and, in 2009, features the most talented team Manassas has ever fielded; a team that seems poised to end the playoff jinx that has plagued the school since time immemorial. A coming-of-age documentary film, Undefeated provides audiences an intimate view of an underprivileged group of teens and their inspirational coach, as they attempt to make history.
Undefeated hits theaters February 17th.