film

Big Blue: The NYC Handball Documentary

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Director(s)	Justin Sullivan
Release Date	1999
Runtime	56 min
Youth Media	n

Film Description

Handball is the hidden gem of New York street culture. Played widely across the city's 2,000 courts with a soft racquetball - or “big blue” - the game is as much a part of of the city's heart as it is of its infrastructure. Top level players dive, hustle and strike the ball with pin-point accuracy, drawing awed crowds and placing profitable wagers wherever they play.

“Big Blue”, a 56-minute documentary shot on digital video, explores this rich world, watching as Champ John “Rookie” Wright demolishes his competition, listening as handball legends Angel Marquez, Buddy Gantt and Joe Durso wonder what it's all worth anyway. Culled from more than 80-hours of footage, “Big Blue” lets the players tell their own story - of the ferocious competition, ambiguous frustrations and grassroots glory of big blue handball, the uncrowned king of NY playground sports.

“Big Blue” was directed and edited by Justin Sullivan, a 26-year-old native New Yorker and avid handball player. Before shooting the video, Justin was a reporter with The New Haven Register. While there he wrote a feature story on a decrepit wire mill that was awarded first-place in the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists 1999 award competition.