"This is the real-life Hoosiers commingled with Remeber the Titans. it's an astonishing sports story but quite a bit more"  —The Dallas Observer

Rocks With Wings
*winner of HBO's prestigious Documentary Feature prize, 2002*
by Rick Derby, USA 2002, 113 min

An unforgettable, epic saga over twelve years in the making, Rick Derby's two-hour documentary ROCKS WITH WINGS traces the journey of Coach Jerry Richardson, an African American high school basketball star from Texas, and the Lady Chieftains, a women's high school basketball team from the small, impoverished Navajo community of Shiprock, New Mexico. With intense and at
times controversial determination, Richardson molds the shy young women - players who have experienced more defeat than victory - into fighters on the basketball court. What results is an inspirational story about the meaning of winning and losing, set against a complex background of race, heritage and societal expectations - for the players, the coach and the Navajo community.

Using footage and interviews filmed over a ten-year period, we watch as the girls struggle with self-doubt and fatalism, within a community skeptical of an outsider's intrusion and his aggressive "go for it" coaching style. For Coach Richardson, who grew up fighting prejudice in the forced integration of the South, gaining the confidence and trust of the team was not easy. "They fought me. They fought success. They fought the system." Slowly, and not without struggles, a bond is forged that allows the man and his team to rise above the odds and emerge as champions.

Filmmaker Rick Derby provides a fascinating window into the Navajo's serene and spiritual philosophy in contrast to the harshness of their isolated environment. "I had to uncover the story," says Derby. "I wanted to find out how this male, black coach taught a team of Navajo teenage girls not to play basketball, but to cope with and overcome the intense and debilitating feelings of victimization and self-defeat. To believe in themselves enough to not only win, but feel that they deserve to win."

What emerges is a rich chronicle of differing cultures coming together on common ground, each learning surprising lessons from the other.

SUNDAY FEB 22 -
One Night Only!

6:00pm
Brooklyn Underground's
Moonshine Theater
in The Nest Art Space

88 Front St. @ Washington St.
Dumbo, Brooklyn
(A/C to High St, F to York St)

Tickets $7
Beer/Wine $3

questions? contact
joshk@brooklynunderground.org or zacheryweiss@brooklynunderground.org