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About Breaking Balls
Product Description Breaking Balls is a 75-minute feature length documentary film that follows three key figures in the lead up to and aftermath of the 30th anniversary of the Cleveland Challenge Cup of Bocce tournament: Gino Latessa, the Tournament Director; Brian Polantz, a world class bocce player from Mayfield, Ohio; and Dominic Olivo, the head groundskeeper at the Wickliffe Italian-American Club. Gino and dozens of Wickliffe I&A volunteers work tirelessly to put on this huge bocce event which draws upwards of 10,000 spectators and players to Wickliffe every year. 96 four man teams and 14 women s teams compete annually in the Challenge Cup for $20,000 in prize money, and more importantly, year-long bragging rights as the best bocce players in the Midwest. Brian played for the United States national team in the 2012 World Bocce Championships in Argentina. We travel with him as he competes in the Midwest summer bocce circuit, playing in the Triple Crown events of the World Series of Bocce in Rome, NY; the Cleveland International Bocce Tournament in Mayfield Heights, OH, and the Cleveland Challenge Cup of Bocce in Wickliffe, OH. Brian has won multiple tournaments, including Rome and Mayfield, but he s never won the Cleveland Challenge Cup of Bocce. Dominic Olivo, 78, is head groundskeeper of the Wickliffe Italian & American Club, whose outdoor bocce courts are considered some of the finest in North America, if not the world. While battling colon cancer, Dominic continues to work tirelessly on his beloved bocce courts, while passing on his knowledge and experience to his young apprentice, Salvatore Continenza. Dominic and his ball busting all-volunteer crew arrive at the courts at 6:30am and put in two or three hours of work 3 times a week, every week, all season long, from May through August, getting the courts ready for the Challenge Cup, one of the biggest bocce tournaments in North America. These three storylines all come together at the 30th annual Challenge Cup Tournament, where we learn ultimately that bocce isn t just a quaint, backyard sport it s a unique cultural tradition, a community of players, supporters and fans, who are the soul of this unique sport, nurturing and passing down from one generation to the next their love and appreciation of this special game. They are the heart of this documentary. Special Features: . Meet the Director . Interview with Mario Pagnoni, author of The Joy of Bocce . Mississippi Bocce short . Club Molisani short Review Cleveland International Film Festival Official Selection. --Cleveland International Film Festival Official Selection 2017 Chagrin Documentary Film Festival. --Chagrin Documentary Film Festival
