An expedition to the dirty abyss of professional sports. The award winning investigative journalist Benjamin Best (CNN Journalist of the Year 2011) takes a global look behind the scenes at the colourful world of sports and exposes the bitter taste behind the multi-billion sports business.
Do I Not Like That - The Final Chapter (1997)
A real 'video nasty' in which England football manager Graham Taylor buckles under the pressure of securing the national team a place in the World Cup Finals. First shown on Channel 4, the camera crew were given unparallelled access to the England camp, climaxing with the emotionally exhausting spectacle of Taylor's touchline breakdown as England lose to Holland in a vital qualifying game. The video includes previously unseen footage.
Youngstown Boys (2013)
"Youngstown Boys" explores class and power dynamics in college sports through the parallel, interconnected journeys of one-time dynamic running back Maurice Clarett and former elite head coach Jim Tressel. Clarett and Tressel emerged from opposite sides of the tracks in Youngstown, Ohio, and then joined for a magical season at Ohio State University in 2002 that produced the first national football championship for the school in over 30 years. Shortly thereafter, though, Clarett was suspended from college football and began a downward spiral that ended with a prison term. Tressel continued at Ohio State for another eight years before his career there also ended in scandal.
Mob Stories (1993)
They're the real 'goodfellas': 'Joe Dogs' Iannuzzi, Tommy DelGiorno, 'Big Dom' Lofaro. For the first time on television, Mafia turncoats give personal accounts of life inside the Mob. In this shocking documentary, five high-ranking informants tell tales of murder, brutality, greed and vanity--and why they broke the Sicilian code of honor. The first generation of the American Mafia stood on the foundation of loyalty and a code of silence. The second and third generations traded their Sicilian traditions for government protection and instant personal gain. MOB STORIES presents five chilling narratives from five members of the underworld, most of whom are overwhelmed with fear and paranoia with the exception of “Fat Jackie”, a loyal lifelong mobster. Father and son team, Alan and Marc Levin, direct and produce an honest and personal portrayal of the demise of the Mafia.
Pro Football (1934)
This MGM Oddity features the 1933 National Football League champion Chicago Bears. The team demonstrates various plays, which are shown first in real time, then in slow motion.
Nuyorican Básquet (2017)
The story of the basketball players that represented Puerto Rico at the San Juan's 1979 Pan Am Games.
The Best of ABC's Wide World of Sports: The 60's (1990)
ABC's Wide World of Sports first started spanning the globe in 1960, and a generation of sports fans and weekend TV viewers were hooked from the start. In this videocassette, featuring highlights of that first decade, Wide World captured the famous moments of competition all over the globe.
Lionel (2008)
Lionel Rose, Australia's first Aboriginal world champion boxing hero - the man behind the myth
Long Distance Warrior (2011)
The story of Bill McGowan, who took on the most powerful monopoly of his time - ATT, and its Bell System of local phone companies - and won against all odds.
The Giants (2021)
We follow the epic lives of sumo legends who made it from humble beginnings in Hawaii, to becoming the first foreigners to rise to the highest ranks in sumo. Starting with Takamiyama who paved the path for Konishiki, Akebono, and Musashimaru who soon followed and ignited sumo fandom around the world. As diplomats for the sport and Japanese culture, these 600 pound outsiders share their hero’s journey from a small Hawaiian village, to having God-like adulation from fans across the world.
Memorial Stadium: True Illini Spirit (2008)
Documentary traces the history of Memorial Stadium at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Covers the earliest days of football at the university, to early concepts for a stadium, World War I, honoring the true Fighting Illini and the first games at the arena built in the early 1920's. Historical film and photographs are mixed with interviews from noted Illinois football players, architects, historians, contractors, veterans and their families, college marching band directors, newspaper reporters and broadcasters.
Faut qu'on parle (2021)
Three women, three men, all very high level athletes, Olympic medalists, world champions in basketball, judo, rugby, fencing, swimming and figure skating have agreed to testify in a documentary. For the first time, they publicly reveal their homosexuality.
WWE: The History Of The World Heavyweight Championship (2009)
The story of the one of the most distinctive and storied championships in the world of sports entertainment and the men who held it.
Mission Steeps (2014)
Xavier de Le Rue and Sam Anthamatten are known for bringing speed and fluidity into the big mountain environment. Following Mission Antarctic, Mission Steeps is the second chapter of the Mission Series. Follow some of the most progressive riders on their way to redefine steeps riding on breathtaking terrain and challenging conditions. Mission Steeps is not only a quest to the most radical terrain but also a journey and documentary on how they get there and their singular approach to the mountain.
A Sunday in Hell (1977)
A chronology of the 1976 Paris-Roubaix bicycle race from the perspective of participants, organizers and spectators.
Jordan Henderson is Never Done (NaN)
Nike Football, Laurence McKenna and Deft Touch films partner to tell the story of the Liverpool FC Captain’s career through the voices of those who know him best. With unprecedented access to Liverpool FC’s first team squad, Jurgen Klopp and England Manager Gareth Southgate – along with a number of well known Liverpool FC fans and Journalists: we hear how Jordan went from his early days in Sunderland to leading the club to title wins.
Kids in a Cage (2023)
Exposing the shocking world of youth MMA (kids cage fighting), the film follows 2 child fighters over several years on their quest to win the kids MMA national championship, as they wrestle demons at home and battle for glory in the cage.
Australia (2009)
How do seven young people, former street children from Romania, get to see the Pacific Ocean? On 1 December 2008, a Romanian national team participates for the first time in the Homeless World Cup in Melbourne, Australia. The film follows the team from the formation of the squad to the end of the championship. The young people are from Timisoara and Arad, runaway children who now live in abandoned houses or who have managed to get a job and live in rented accommodation after going through orphanages or prisons. After taking a beating from many teams, the young Romanians manage to beat the USA. They are happy. They are all thinking of never going "home" again. It's warm and nice here, the people are nice. "In case I stay, I kissed you all!" says one of them cautiously. But after taking pictures of themselves on the beach with the ocean behind them and beautiful girls by their side, the seven return to Romania and get on with their lives.
We All Play (2024)
"WE ALL PLAY" addresses the reality of the LGBTQIA+ community in sport. In a trip around the world, we will meet outstanding world elite athletes, who will talk, many of them for the first time, about their personal and professional experiences in first person.
November 16 (2015)
After 32 years of heartache, bitterness and despair, it took just seconds for Guus Hiddink to exude a rare sense of calmness in the Socceroos dressing room. Four years prior to the now famous night on November 16, 2005, a fragile Australian team had been bullied off the park by Uruguay in its quest to finally break its World Cup drought. Intimidated from the moment they touched down in Montevideo in 2001, spat on by locals and then roared off the park by 60,000 manic fans in the Estadio Centenario, they had barely stood a chance. Now older, more mature and — with Hiddink in charge — more professional, things would be different four years on. That change in mentality flows through November 16, a gripping documentary from Richard Bayliss and Ben Coonan that depicts the Socceroos’ journey from West Germany in 1974 to the moment John Aloisi’s crisp spot kick struck the back of Fabian Carini’s net.