It's Not Crazy, It's Sports

Welcome to Subterranean Stadium, the basement of John DiCarlo’s home in Charlotte, NY, where he and his buddies and relatives have gathered for years to play electronic football. In this beautiful, deeply personal film, Morris not only makes the little players come alive, but also lets the men who manipulate them tell their own stories: the hot dog vendor, the ex-con, the Kodak company man and the postal carrier who defies his own health problems to keep the “buzz, buzz, buzz” alive. Yes, they keep score, but as DiCarlo says, “All that really counts is family and friends.”

North Carolina basketball fans are well aware of the Jordan 23 jersey that hangs from the rafters of the Dean Dome. But there was a time—February of 1998, to be exact—when it disappeared. In The Heist, Morris gets a former Duke student to recreate the theft and subsequent discovery of the sacred object. Having cased the joint, he and three accomplices figured out a way to snatch the jumbo jersey and escalate the traditional war of pranks between the Tar Heel and Blue Devil faithfuls. Their luck ran out, though, a few weeks later when the jersey was recovered just before they were to reveal it at Duke’s Cameron Indoor. Yes, it’s a tale told by a crazed sports nut, but it signifies the lengths to which college hoops fans will go to stick it to an archival.

“You can tell a lot about a horse by looking at the eye.” So says Steve Coburn, who talks to Morris about California Chrome, the horse who nearly became the first Triple Crown winner in 36 years during the 2014 campaign. Coburn tells the story of why he chose to buy the mare who birthed “Chrome”, how he and co-owner Perry Martin came to call their syndicate Dumbass Partners, and why he lost it when the horse finished out of the money in the Belmont. By looking in Coburn’s eyes, you’ll see why we loves horses.