Cool sports docus on Netflix
by rick olivares
Sports documentaries can be riveting. And guess what? Netflix has a bunch of them that will pique your interest whether you root for this team or not.
Here are six documentaries that I wholly recommend for binge watching And in no particular order. Burst out that six-pack and munchies.
Sunderland ‘Til I Die
This short series has eight episodes that recount the 2017-18 season of English club, Sunderland FC following their relegation from the Premier League tothe Championship League (second division). You don’t have to be a fan of any other team to appreciate this story. It shows the passion and the connection of the club to the city.
The Carter Effect
A 2017 documentary on the effect that Vince Carter had on Toronto and Canada in general. This goes nicely with the documentary by Filipina-Canadian filmmaker Kathleen Jayme, Finding Big country, which is about former Vancouver Grizzlies center, Bryant Reeves.
Basketball or Nothing
The latest entry to Netflix that is barely three days’ old. This is about the Chinle, Arizona basketball team’s quest to restore pride to their American Indian community and to find a way out of their predicament. Last year, Vice TV released a lateral documentary titled, Metal from the Dirt which is an inside look at the Navajo nation’s black metal music scene. Fascinating. And you feel for them.
The Battered Bastards of Baseball
A one-hour and 20-minute documentary about a group of furry, hairy bunch of guys who wanted to play baseball. This is a true story of the Class-A team, the Portland Mavericks that once featured actor Kurt Russell (the team was managed by his father) and ex-pro pitcher Jim Bouton who was blacklisted from baseball after his tell-all book, Ball Four detailed a lot of inside stories from his time in Major League Baseball.
You want an underdog story then this is it.
Icarus.
A 2017 film that unfolds like a plot out of Designated Survivor (you have to watch both the American and Korean versions of Designated Survivor). A geo-political thrill that is actually a sports expose. Filmmaker Bryan Fogel’s gutsy tell-all about Russia’s doping program (that started with a cycling race) beginning with Grigory Rodchenkov’s revelations about a state-sponsored doping program.
How dangerous is this? Rodchenkov is in protective custody while two of his associates were murdered.
Mountain.
Remember that famous question about why one climbs a mountain? And its equally famous answer, “Because it is there?”
If your heart was broken by Into the Wild (also on Netflix now), watch Mountain. Directed by Jennifer Peedom and narrated by actor, Willem Dafoe, Mountain shows the beautiful cinematography of mountain ranges and the attempts to scale them.
As Dafoe says in the intro, “To those who are enthralled by mountains, their wonder is beyond all dispute. To those who are not, their allure is a kind of madness.”
If you aren’t intrigued by that, then go watch some cheesy drama.
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