Bobbito Garcia and Kevin Couliau celebrate New York City street ball in DOIN’ IT IN THE PARK
DOIN’ IT IN THE PARK: PICK-UP BASKETBALL, NEW YORK CITY (Bobbito Garcia & Kevin Couliau, 2012)
Maysles Cinema
343 Malcolm X Blvd. between 127th & 128th Sts.
May 22-28, $10
212-582-6050
www.mayslesinstitute.org
www.doinitinthepark.com
Some of the Big Apple’s best basketball doesn’t take place inside Madison Square Garden or the Barclays Center. Over the course of two summers, journalist, announcer, and native New Yorker Bobbito “Kool Bob Love” Garcia and French photographer and video director Kevin Couliau biked to 180 outdoor courts throughout the five boroughs, detailing the history of the social and cultural phenomenon of street hoops in the fast-paced, celebratory documentary Doin’ It in the Park: Pick-up Basketball, New York City. Garcia (Where’d You Get Those Shoes? NYC’s Sneaker Culture: 1960-1987) and Couliau (“Heart & Soul of New York City”) meet with many of the playground’s biggest stars, from those who made it to the NBA (Julius “Dr. J” Erving, Kenny “the Jet” Smith, Geoff Huston) to those whose legends remain on the street (James “Fly” Williams, Corey “Homicide” Williams, Niki “Lil’ Ratchet” Avery, Ed “the Sundance Kid” Davis, Andre “the Latin Assassin” Ortiz). Featuring a soundtrack that combines original music by Eddie Palmieri with songs by Donald Byrd & the Blackbyrds, Quantic, the Budos Band, Jurassic 5, and others, the film captures the rhythm and beat of street hoops, from three-on-three, half court, and full court to Horse and 21, with guys even shooting into garbage cans, milk crates, and monkey bars if no courts were available.
Garcia, who narrates the movie in worshipful tones, and Couliau hang out at such key spots as Rucker Park, King Towers, Dean St., LeFrak City, and the Cage at West Fourth St., where they film games and let the current and former players wax poetic about their dedication to the sport. “This is what we did, man. It’s in my blood,” explains George “White Chocolate” Ganley about playing in the rain, snow, or sleet. Ganley is one of two Caucasians highlighted in a sport dominated by blacks and Hispanics; the other is Jack “Black Jack” Ryan, who recalls the first time he got on the court and proved he got game by dunking. “It’s been heaven ever since,” he says. The filmmakers also pay tribute to such late legends of the street as Wilt Chamberlain and Earl “the Goat” Manigault, who many consider one of the best basketball players in the history of the sport. The codirectors also show the game’s positive impact on inmates behind bars. “It was about your pride, it was about who you was, it was about who you was trying to become,” says Richard “Pee Wee” Kirkland, who once scored 135 points in a prison game. After the credits, Garcia and Couliau add footage of themselves going one-on-one, unable to stop playing the game they clearly love so much. Indeed, Doin’ It in the Park is a love letter to a cultural touchstone that is uniquely New York. The film is having its official U.S. theatrical release May 22-28 at Maysles Cinema in Harlem, with five screenings followed by Q&As with Garcia, Couliau, and such special guests as Wild Style director Charlie Ahearn, photographer Charlie Samuels, executive producer Nick Quested, Ryan, Avery, and others, after which it moves to Harlem’s MISTcinema from May 31 to June 6.
Pema Tseden’s Old Dog is a beautifully told, slowly paced meditation on Buddhism’s four Noble Truths — “Life means suffering”; The origin of suffering is attachment”; “The cessation of suffering is attainable”; and “There is a path to the cessation of suffering” — that ends with a shocking, manipulative finale that nearly destroys everything that came before it. In order to get a little money and to save the family’s sheep-herding dog from being stolen, Gonpo (Drolma Kyab) sells their Tibetan nomad mastiff to Lao Wang (Yanbum Gyal), a dealer who resells the prized breed to stores in China, where they’re used for protection. When Gonpa’s father (Lochey) finds out what his son has done, he goes back to Lao Wang and demands the return of the dog he’s taken care of for thirteen years. “I’d sell myself before the dog,” he tells his son. And so begins a gentle tale of parents and children, set in a modern-day Tibet that is ruled by China’s heavy hand. Gonpa’s father doesn’t understand why his son, a lazy man who rides around on a motorized bike and never seems to do much of anything, doesn’t yet have any children of his own, so he pays for Gonpa and his wife Rikso, (Tamdrin Tso), to go to the doctor to see what’s wrong. Meanwhile, the old man keeps a close watch on his dog, wary that Lao Wang will to try to steal it again. Writer-director Pema Tseden (The Silent Holy Stones, The Search) explores such themes as materialism, family, and attachment in a lovely little film that sadly is nearly ruined by its extreme final scene. If you missed Old Dog last week as part of the MoMA series “Chinese Realities/Documentary Visions,” you have another chance to catch it, as it’s being shown nightly May 21-27 at 7:00 at IndieScreen in Williamsburg.
