Not Just A Game (Home-Use)

Power, Politics & American Sports

Duration: 62 min
ISBN: 1-932869-50-6
Date Produced: 2010
Subtitles: English

Filmmaker Info
Study Guide
Transcript
Press Room
Film Festivals
Related Links
Press Reviews

DVD Pricing

Home Use: $19.95

Home-Use Only

This DVD is licensed for home-use only and may not be screened in a classroom or public setting or kept in an institutional collection. Purchase an institutional or public screening license.

Not Just A Game (Home-Use)
Power, Politics & American Sports

Available for home-use to Democracy Now! listeners for a limited time only!
Offer expires October 31, 2011.

We've been told again and again that sports and politics don't mix, that games are just games and athletes should just "shut up and play." But according to Nation magazine sports editor Dave Zirin, this notion is just flat-out wrong. In Not Just a Game, the powerful new documentary based on his bestselling book The People's History of Sports in the United States, Zirin argues that far from providing merely escapist entertainment, American sports have long been at the center of some of the major political debates and struggles of our time. In a fascinating tour of the good, the bad, and the ugly of American sports culture, Zirin first traces how American sports have glamorized militarism, racism, sexism, and homophobia, then excavates a largely forgotten history of rebel athletes who stood up to power and fought for social justice beyond the field of play. The result is as deeply moving as it is exhilarating: nothing less than an alternative history of political struggle in the United States as seen through the games its people have played.

Sections: Introduction | In the Arena | Like a Girl | Breaking the Color Barrier | The Courage of Athletes

Dave Zirin

Dave Zirin is the bestselling author of five books, the sports editor of The Nation magazine, and the host of Sirius XM Satellite's popular weekly show, Edge of Sports Radio. His blog The Edge of Sports is read each week by thousands of people across the country. He is also a columnist for SLAM Magazine, The Progressive, and Sports Illustrated online, and his writing has appeared in numerous other publications, including the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the New York Daily News, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Zirin has also brought his blend of sports and politics to multiple television programs, including ESPN's Outside the Lines, MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, MSNBC's Morning Joe, MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show, and Democracy Now with Amy Goodman. His latest book, Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games We Love - which Naomi Klein described as an "original and scathing look at how America works" - has just been released from Scribner.

Filmmaker Info

Directed by Jeremy Earp
Written by Dave Zirin, Jeremy Earp & Chris Boulton
Produced by Chris Boulton, Jeremy Earp, Scott Morris & Jason Young
Editor: Jason Young
Story Editor: Scott Morris
Executive Producer: Sut Jhally
Media Research: Scott Morris & Jason Young
Director of Photography: Tom Robertson
Additional Camera: Chris Boulton
Associate Producers: Loretta Alper, Andrew Killoy & Diane Williams
Sound: Stuart "Bud" Benson
Sound Mix: Rikk Desgres
Motion Graphics: Andrew Killoy & Jason Young

Screenings

Conference Screenings

North American Society for the Sociology of Sport conference | Minneapolis, MN | November 2-5, 2011
American Sociological Association meeting | Las Vegas | August 20-23, 2011
International Society for the History of Physical Education and Sport Conference | Frankfurt, Germany | August 8-12, 2011
International Socioloy of Sport Association World Congress of Sociology of Sport | Havana, Cuba | July 12-15, 2011
North American Society for Sport History conference | Austin, TX | May 28, 2011
History of Education in Society postgraduate conference | London, UK | March 19, 2011

Film Festivals

ReelWorld Film Festival | Toronto | April 8, 2011

Read Dave Zirin's work at "Edge of Sports"
Sports Fan Coalition
Interview with Jeremy Earp, director & producer of Not Just a Game
Gender in Televised Sports: News and Highlights Shows,  1989‐2009
A 1953 New York Times article by Arthur Daley on how sports should be "For Men Only"
Reactions to Kathy Switzer's run in the 1967 Boston Marathon

Praise for Not Just a Game and Dave Zirin

From Journalists & Authors:
"If there were an award for 'Most Valuable Sportswriter,' I would vote for Dave Zirin."
- Howard Zinn | Author of A People's History of the United States

"Not since Hunter S. Thompson has a sports writer shown the right snarl for the job."
- Naomi Klein | The Nation and The Guardian reporter | Author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

"Be sure to watch this thrillingly provocative film before you see your next game if you finally want to know what sports is all about. Not Just a Game is a powerful teaching tool."
- Robert Lipsyte | Former New York Times sports writer | Author of An Accidental Sportswriter

"Dave Zirin's film is both brilliant and, even better than that, honest. The sports world is a far more interesting place when viewed through the lens of Not Just a Game."
- Tom Farrey | ESPN reporter | Author of Game On: The All-American Race to Make Champions of Our Children

From Scholars:
"By turns moving, maddening, touching, enlightening, hilarious, and sad. I can not think of a better way to teach my students about such a wide array of issues than having them watch this film."
- Ellen R. Hansen, Ph.D. | Chair, Department of Social Sciences | Emporia State University

"It's got everything: gender, race, class, and sex. An anti-bullying message that's as effective as it is inspiring. Priceless footage, action, and a high-energy history of courageous progressive activism that will keep young people watching. It's SportsCenter on social-justice steroids. I can't recommend it highly enough."
- Jackson Katz, Ph.D. | Creator of Tough Guise

"Not Just A Game doesn't argue whether sports should or should not be political as much as establishes a strong claim that sports and politics are -- and will continue to be -- inextricably linked."
- Andrew Billings | Clemson University | Author of Communicating about Sports Media: Cultures Collide

"Not Just a Game is sure to enlighten and enliven any classroom discussion of nationalism, gender, race, and class as they intersect with sport."
- Michael L. Butterworth | Bowling Green State University | Author of Baseball and Rhetorics of Purity: The National Pastime and American Identity During the War on Terror

"Zirin, who has emerged as the most important progressive voice in American sport, challenges teachers, students, athletes and sports fans not to deny the existence of politics in sport, but instead, in the tradition of Tommie Smith and Billie Jean King, to take personal risks to ensure that sport becomes a realm for the promotion of egalitarian and peaceful human values and relations."
- Michael A. Messner | University of Southern California | Author of It's All for the Kids: Gender, Families and Youth Sports

"A very challenging documentary, especially for those prone to romanticize sports as a politics-free zone."
- David Rowe | University of Western Sydney, Australia | Author of Sport, Culture and the Media: The Unruly Trinity

"With a profound commitment to social justice and human rights, Dave Zirin provocatively challenges us to rethink the cultural politics of sport and its impact on everyday life."
- Michael D. Giardina | Florida State University | Author of Youth Cultures & Sport: Identity, Power, and Politics

"Dave Zirin is one of our best critics of sport culture and his excellent documentary provides illuminating images of sports and politics, including both how sports is complicit with U.S. nationalism and militarism, and how sports is a terrain of struggle over issues such as race, gender, and sexuality."
- Douglas Kellner | University of California - Los Angeles | Author of Media Spectacle

"Not Just a Game exhibits the rare ability to reduce complex issues to their social and political cores, thereby providing audiences -- more readily attuned to the banal superficialities of the sport media -- with an informed critical lens with which to more progressively engage and experience American sport culture."
- David Andrews | University of Maryland School of Public Health | Author of Sport, Culture and Advertising

"Four Stars! Not Just a Game is a movie that matters. It will prove to be a boon for classroom discussions about the links between homophobia, hypernationalism, racism, sexism, and class exploitation."
- Clay Steinman | Macalester College | Co-Author of Consuming Environments: Television and Commercial Culture

From Athletes & Activists:
"It's a long time coming for a documentary like this to be made. Watching it was an absolutely fantastic experience."
- Dr. John Carlos | 1968 Olympic medalist

"Not Just a Game connected big-time with my students -- especially with those who don't always sit up their straightest in history class. If you're looking for new ways to talk about sexism, racism, homophobia or bullying in your classroom without turning your students off, this is the film for you."
- Jesse Hagopian | History teacher at Garfield High School in Seattle | Founding member of the Social Equality Educators (SEE)

"Dave Zirin makes visible what has been erased from the history books and contemporary imagination. This is one film that can and should be used to raise awareness and discussion in every junior and senior high school classroom in the country."
- Deborah Menkart | Executive Director of Teaching for Change

From the Press:
"This thought-provoking documentary is sure to jog memories and spark debate."
- Booklist

"Not Just a Game offers the inspiration of those athletes who have opted to resist orthodoxy, to support individual and community rights, to challenge rules that do damage."
- Cynthia Fuchs | PopMatters

Click here to read the complete reviews