Holy Land Home Run
Today we have some real wisdom from Erik Kesten and Brett Rapkin, the brilliant pair of directors behind new documentary Holy Land Hardball. The movie focuses on the struggle to put together a professional Israeli baseball league, and includes a cameo by Jewish first basemen for the Red Sox, Kevin Youkilis. The film (and this entry) speaks for itself–but I’ll leave you with this a cool tidbit: last year, Kesten’s fantasy baseball team were called THE UNHOLEY BAGELS, named after IBL creator Larry Baras’ cream-cheese-stuffed hole-less bagel invention from the film. He also had Jewish All-Star Ian Kinsler on my team. They finished in 7th place!
When we first read about a middle-aged, bagel-making Jew from Boston named Larry Baras who was attempting to create the first-ever professional baseball league in the Middle East, it sounded like one of those absurd underdog premises that often make the best sports movies. Of course this was real life and a victorious ending was far from guaranteed. Nevertheless, we were inspired by a number of Hollywood sports films.
It was clear Larry was guided by the “If you build it, they will come” mantra from “Field of Dreams.” Despite a skeptical Israeli public, which had gone 5767 years without the sport, Larry believed that if he was able to show Israelis the best qualities of baseball - father/son camaraderie, pastoral backdrops - they would in fact come.
With players ranging in age from 17 to 51 and hailing from nine different countries, the IBL was a rag-tag group of underdogs, much like the characters in “Major League.” But while the fictional Cleveland Indians had Ricky Vaughn and Jake Taylor, the real life Netanya Tigers of the IBL have Leon Feingold and Dan Rootenberg! (”Who are these &^%&-ing guys?”)
As we looked to meld a hip Mid-East vibe to the classical sports film score - like the iconic theme to “The Natural” - we were extremely fortunate to work with JDUB Records in molding the film’s soundtrack. In addition to using tracks from Tomer Yosef and Sagol 59, an original score was composed by Sway Machinery’s Jeremiah Lockwood. The film moves from moments of absurdist comedy to nail-biting suspense to spiritual exploration. Somehow Jeremiah was able to pull it off. Our limited edition DVD comes with a “Making of the Score” featurette starring Jeremiah and members of Sway Machinery. Check out the entire film HERE.