TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2015 // A FILM REVIEW OF "FASTBALL"
The 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T, runs April 15th-26th and features hundreds of features, documentaries, short films, and special events all throughout downtown New York City. The ArtsWire Weekly's three featured reviewers Mateo, Derek, & Chrisena are hitting the festival and bringing the reviews right to you! What you should see and what you should skip...
FASTBALL, the new documentary from director Jonathan Hock captures the spirit of one of America's favorite pastimes. Fastball traces the trajectory of baseball's most legendary pitch from the earliest measurements of its speed off the hand of Walter "The Big Train" Johnson to the present, when Arnoldis Chapman from Cuba is throwing beyond 105 mph for the Reds.
Between then and now baseball has evolved. Uniforms, bats and ways to measure the speed of a pitch have all become more high tech. Through each era, however, there has been the guy that every batter feared most, the hardest throwing man of the time. Fastball compares some of the greats and provides awesome graphics to illustrate the simple science of hurling a 5-ounce ball 60'6" accurately across homeplate. Along the way there have been amazing feats of human prowess--honestly any time a batter connects with a 90+mph ball it's amazing--and moments that inspired the nation, like Sandy Koufax's perfect game pitched in LA in 1965. In the end, there is a guy who has thrown (according to science) the most heat. And his name is...
VERDICT: MUST SEE
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Jonathan Hock FEATURING Rich "The Goose" Gossage, Craig "The Closer" Kimbrel, Nolan Ryan, Bob Feller, Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, Steve Delkowski, Hank Aaron, Derek Jeter, Aroldis Chapman, Brian McCann, and many more.
Playing as part of The 2015 Tribeca International Film Festival. For tickets & schedules: http://www.tribecafilm.com
W. DEREK JORDEN is an actor currently living and working in New York City. He and his wife live on a Spaceship on the top of a building, which makes for some interesting dinner parties.