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A delightfully offbeat short about a couple of middle-aged friends’ intense dedication to Little League baseball by New York City-based filmmaker Gabriel Wilson. No stranger to the dreams (and fanaticism) that begins with Little League, Wilson tells the story of a pair of local irritants and one harebrained scheme to influence the playoff game. As he states:

“With Balk, I wanted to create a world where obsession reigns — a world like the one I grew up in — where the local sport was scarred by class and ethnic conflicts between groups from different parts of town, and where volatile coaches and helicopter parents traded insults and sometimes punches. But underneath the rough exterior of this fanatic world, there is a soft core. Balk is a story of friendship, love, and broken American dreams. It is about a moment where two friends, each afraid of losing the other, find their loyalties severely tested. It is also a story about the lengths that people will go to for those they love.”

Check out “Balk” above and see full credits below!

 

Cast:
Will Janowitz
Linas Phillips
Patrick Ryan Wood
Leslie Meisel
Scott Friend
Madeleine Morgenweck
Bari Hyman
Xavier Evans
Henry Pskowski
Grace Rex
Maria Tholl
Kealia Smith
Mark Castillo
Maria Bruzhayte
Craig Durham
Adam Wilson

Directed by Gabriel Wilson
Written by Gabriel Wilson and Ben Gottlieb
Produced by Mary McCune
Producer: Jennifer Kaiser
Producer: Scott Friend
Co-Producer: Tamara Hansen
Associate Producer: Robert Frankel
Cinematographer: Rob Leitzell
Editor: Robert Grigsby Wilson
Composer: Samuel Nobels
Unit Production Manager: Conner Thompson
1st Assistant Director: Dina Graham
Casting by Allison Twardziak
Art Director: Melanie May
Costume Designer: Aminah Haddad
Colorist: Jenny Montgomery
DI Facility: Company 3
DI Producer: Stephanie Arce
Sound Editor: Robin Shore
VFX Supervisor: Rob Bellon
Script Supervisor: Michelle Karst
Title Designer: Caspar Newbolt
Music Supervision By Groove Garden, Annie Pearlman, Melissa Chapman
1st Assistant Camera: Matthew Devlin
Steadicam Operator: Jesse Sanchez-Strauss
2nd Assistant: Rob Bellon
2nd Assistant/Swing: Omar Kakar
DIT: Joao Prado
Camera Intern: Alex Reid
Gaffer: Alex Brown
Additional Gaffer: Wesley Ortiz
Best Boy Electric: Daisy Long
Electrician: Mark Anthony Castillo
Key Grip: Charlie Diserens
Grip: Jonathan Tang
Additional Grip: Lauren Fondren
Additional Grip: Leo Hardman-Hill
Hair And Make-Up: Ashtyn Thurber
Sound Mixer/Boom Operator: Samuel Stevenson-Yang
Additional Sound Mixer/Boom Operator: Mauricio Escamilla
Casting Assistant: Dihlia Azama
Art Production Assistant: Nicholas Starikovsky
Picture Car Driver: Henry Pskowski
Additional Editing by Kaitlyn Cortes, Gino Volpe
Additional Locations: James Hogg
Production Assistant(s): Ana Jimenez, Elizaveta Goroshinikova, Becky Morgan,
Liza Goroshnikova, Maria Bruzhayte, Jordi Llaurado Vila,
Mandy Kim, Jose Arrigoitia, Jimmy Charlap, Colleen Brennan
Wrestling Footage Provided by Jon Marcher, Austin Goldberg

Special Thanks: Eric Mendelsohn, Julie Wilson, Jenny Tromski,
Louis Wilson, Peter Vaughn Sharon Kaitz, Michael J. Cacioppo Belantara,
Adam Wilson, Soheil Rezayazdi, Sarah Rapp,
Hana Safu, Jesse Husid, Andrew Castillo,
Jonathan Katz, Dumont Little League, Mahak Jiwani

Thank You: Matthews Diner and Pancake House, Jaclyn Noel,
VFW Hall POST 4290, Chantel Clark, Below The Line Production Supply,
Leonardo Campaner, Hand Held Films, Christian Thompson, Fixitinpost

 

This video was submitted by Gabriel Wilson and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

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