Before the Ice Bucket Challenge, there was “Super Size Me.” When little-known filmmaker Morgan Spurlock challenged himself to eat at McDonald’s for every meal, three times a day, for thirty days straight, he anticipated the era of viral marketing with purpose. The documentary grossed $11.5 million theatrically in 2004 and ignited an international conversation about the fast food industry.
By appearing in his film as subject and narrator, Spurlock popularized a kind of personality-driven commentary that is now regularly found in another format — video blogging, or “vlogging.” And that’s why he’s a good fit to produce “Vlogumentary,” the first feature film to explore one of the more ubiquitous ways that personalities develop on the site.
Read More: Morgan Spurlock’s New Documentary ‘Rats’ Will Definitely Make You Lose Your Lunch — Watch
The film not only offers fans an intimate look at their favorite vloggers, but also demystifies the strange career path for would-be skeptics.
By appearing in his film as subject and narrator, Spurlock popularized a kind of personality-driven commentary that is now regularly found in another format — video blogging, or “vlogging.” And that’s why he’s a good fit to produce “Vlogumentary,” the first feature film to explore one of the more ubiquitous ways that personalities develop on the site.
Read More: Morgan Spurlock’s New Documentary ‘Rats’ Will Definitely Make You Lose Your Lunch — Watch
The film not only offers fans an intimate look at their favorite vloggers, but also demystifies the strange career path for would-be skeptics.
- 26/10/2016
- por Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Produced by Morgan Spurlock (Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold) and directed by Brent Hodge (I Am Chris Farley), The Pistol Shrimps follows an L.A.-based rec-league team. Actress Maria Blasucci created The Pistol Shrimps, and their point guard is Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation). The team is primarily made up of actors and writers, and Hodge’s doc […]
The post ‘The Pistol Shrimps’ Trailer: Are You Ready For Shrimps Basketball Time? appeared first on /Film.
The post ‘The Pistol Shrimps’ Trailer: Are You Ready For Shrimps Basketball Time? appeared first on /Film.
- 17/6/2016
- por Jack Giroux
- Slash Film
If you don’t know who the Pistol Shrimps are, you’re going to want to very soon.
Brent Hodge’s new documentary “The Pistol Shrimps” follows the eponymous all-women recreational basketball team, led by players like Aubrey Plaza, model/actress Melissa Stetten, comedian Molly Hawkey (who you may know as “‘The Bachelor’s oldest-ever contestant”) and many other incredible players just might be one of the funnest and funniest films of the year. During the film’s Los Angeles premiere, the laughs never slowed, but it also became apparent that this documentary isn’t about basketball. It’s about what basketball means and can do for these women as individuals and as a group of friends, empowering them, inspiring them, encouraging them and much more.
After screening Wednesday night at The Theatre at Ace Hotel, the Shrimps, their coaches, their announcers and director Hodge sat down for a Q&A. Like their team name implies — and they would suggest to look up what a pistol shrimp is — each woman’s personality popped like the crack of a pistol shrimp claw. They laughed at many of the high jinks that unfolded the season depicted in the doc, but also got real about how, no matter the small scale, the team is vastly important to them. That’s something that’s also evident in the documentary, as the film makes sure to highlight many of the team members, their personalities and how the team affects their lives.
Read More: SXSW: 10 Totally Random Minutes with Aubrey Plaza
The team itself came together in a rather interesting way. According to the film, it was a bit tough to get the league together, as there wasn’t really a league at all before they came along. In the Q&A, Shrimp Amanda Lund explained how the struggles of making a web series sparked the idea in the first place. “I remember the moment when Maria [Blasucci] realized she needed to start a sports team. We had made this web series ‘Ghost Ghirls’ that no one was watching. So we made our own flyers and started flyering in the streets, saying, ‘You got ghosts? Watch this web series.’ So we were handing out these flyers and Maria was like, ‘This is so fun being out and doing an activity.’ And then she was like, ‘I’m going to start a sports team.’”
But why basketball? Recounting a rather momentous and crazy achievement in her early life, Shrimp founder Blasucci said, “I used to play in grade school and one time, I was dribbling the ball in the park league on the Pacific Palisades Sparks and I lost my shoe at halfcourt as I was dribbling the ball. And I went to shoot the basket and I made it, but my shoe was still at halfcourt. It was a real whirlwind.”
Unfortunately, the ragtag group didn’t start off with success, with only a few members ever having played the sport, let alone in an organized way, and others not entirely knowing how the sport works. Originally, they came together with a shared sense of trash talking and putting down their haters to offset this lack of success. But during the documented season, the Shrimps went on to win the championship.
This did, however, come at a cost to their original skills. One of the Shrimps said, “I think it goes to the root of self confidence and when you don’t have a lot of self confidence, it’s very easy to talk trash. So when we finally got the skills, the trash talking went away. It’s like when you don’t dress for the job you have, you dress for the job you want and so we talked trash when we couldn’t play basketball.”
Read More: The 22 Most Anticipated Films Of The 2016 Tribeca Film Festival
After seeing the original trash talking chemistry, filmmaker Hodge knew he had to make a movie about them, telling the crowd, “One of my friends went to the games and he was like, ‘Dude, this whole thing’s a film. There’s a coach with a unicorn costume on, you’ve got to film this.’ And then we just started filming.”
He even theorized that the crew is why they won, explaining that “this is the only season you guys have won, so we’re like your lucky charm. And I don’t think we would’ve had a film unless they won.” Shrimp Molly Hawkey pleaded, “I was wondering if you could come out to the rest of our seasons because we didn’t do so well this season.” This past season, the Shrimps won only three games and lost seven.
But it wasn’t always easy for Shrimps. There were a lot of antics and even drama between teams during the season, exemplified in the documentary when Aubrey Plaza tore her Acl playing undercover in a second game on her sister’s team. The recovery, which Plaza described as taking “a couple steps forward, a bunch of steps backwards and I’m trying to just get forward again,” and the taste of the other team led her to test the market.
“I’m going to be playing for the Spice Squirrels in the fall. After my injury, I had a lot of time off and I just decided to test free agency,” she said. “I had to make the best choice for my family and my basketball career. And I just felt like the Spice Squirrels have a lot to offer me.”
Toward the end of the Q&A, founder Blasucci touched on an empowering point about the team, an aspect that was the documentary’s most lasting impression.
“I went to an all girls high school and I learned that girls can be the best of friends if they allow themselves to kind of let go of all the claw,” she said. “You know, ‘Ah, I need to get ahead of you!’ If you could just let that go, you can have such deep relationships with girls and I feel that with all of you girls and I, at no point, ever feel jealous or envious or anything. I just feel 100% support and I feel grateful and it’s wonderful. I suggest any girl out there that doesn’t have a tight group of girlfriends to really search for that, because as hard as it may be, you find these people that are so important to you and I feel that with all of these girls and I’m really grateful.”
Read More: Morgan Spurlock on Why Documentaries Matter More Than Ever
“Pistol Shrimps,” which is the first original feature film released by Seeso, an ad-free comedy streaming service, premieres today, June 16, on seeso.com. The film was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year and was executive produced by Morgan Spurlock, the filmmaker behind “Super Size Me.” Check out the trailer below!
Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Festivals newsletter here.
Related stories'Life, Animated' Trailer: Young Boy Unable to Speak Finds Words in Disney ClassicsWatch: 'Hamilton' Star Lin-Manuel Miranda Busts Out A Ramen-Inspired RapReview: 'The Witness' Throws Shocking New Light On New York's Most Infamous Murder...
Brent Hodge’s new documentary “The Pistol Shrimps” follows the eponymous all-women recreational basketball team, led by players like Aubrey Plaza, model/actress Melissa Stetten, comedian Molly Hawkey (who you may know as “‘The Bachelor’s oldest-ever contestant”) and many other incredible players just might be one of the funnest and funniest films of the year. During the film’s Los Angeles premiere, the laughs never slowed, but it also became apparent that this documentary isn’t about basketball. It’s about what basketball means and can do for these women as individuals and as a group of friends, empowering them, inspiring them, encouraging them and much more.
After screening Wednesday night at The Theatre at Ace Hotel, the Shrimps, their coaches, their announcers and director Hodge sat down for a Q&A. Like their team name implies — and they would suggest to look up what a pistol shrimp is — each woman’s personality popped like the crack of a pistol shrimp claw. They laughed at many of the high jinks that unfolded the season depicted in the doc, but also got real about how, no matter the small scale, the team is vastly important to them. That’s something that’s also evident in the documentary, as the film makes sure to highlight many of the team members, their personalities and how the team affects their lives.
Read More: SXSW: 10 Totally Random Minutes with Aubrey Plaza
The team itself came together in a rather interesting way. According to the film, it was a bit tough to get the league together, as there wasn’t really a league at all before they came along. In the Q&A, Shrimp Amanda Lund explained how the struggles of making a web series sparked the idea in the first place. “I remember the moment when Maria [Blasucci] realized she needed to start a sports team. We had made this web series ‘Ghost Ghirls’ that no one was watching. So we made our own flyers and started flyering in the streets, saying, ‘You got ghosts? Watch this web series.’ So we were handing out these flyers and Maria was like, ‘This is so fun being out and doing an activity.’ And then she was like, ‘I’m going to start a sports team.’”
But why basketball? Recounting a rather momentous and crazy achievement in her early life, Shrimp founder Blasucci said, “I used to play in grade school and one time, I was dribbling the ball in the park league on the Pacific Palisades Sparks and I lost my shoe at halfcourt as I was dribbling the ball. And I went to shoot the basket and I made it, but my shoe was still at halfcourt. It was a real whirlwind.”
Unfortunately, the ragtag group didn’t start off with success, with only a few members ever having played the sport, let alone in an organized way, and others not entirely knowing how the sport works. Originally, they came together with a shared sense of trash talking and putting down their haters to offset this lack of success. But during the documented season, the Shrimps went on to win the championship.
This did, however, come at a cost to their original skills. One of the Shrimps said, “I think it goes to the root of self confidence and when you don’t have a lot of self confidence, it’s very easy to talk trash. So when we finally got the skills, the trash talking went away. It’s like when you don’t dress for the job you have, you dress for the job you want and so we talked trash when we couldn’t play basketball.”
Read More: The 22 Most Anticipated Films Of The 2016 Tribeca Film Festival
After seeing the original trash talking chemistry, filmmaker Hodge knew he had to make a movie about them, telling the crowd, “One of my friends went to the games and he was like, ‘Dude, this whole thing’s a film. There’s a coach with a unicorn costume on, you’ve got to film this.’ And then we just started filming.”
He even theorized that the crew is why they won, explaining that “this is the only season you guys have won, so we’re like your lucky charm. And I don’t think we would’ve had a film unless they won.” Shrimp Molly Hawkey pleaded, “I was wondering if you could come out to the rest of our seasons because we didn’t do so well this season.” This past season, the Shrimps won only three games and lost seven.
But it wasn’t always easy for Shrimps. There were a lot of antics and even drama between teams during the season, exemplified in the documentary when Aubrey Plaza tore her Acl playing undercover in a second game on her sister’s team. The recovery, which Plaza described as taking “a couple steps forward, a bunch of steps backwards and I’m trying to just get forward again,” and the taste of the other team led her to test the market.
“I’m going to be playing for the Spice Squirrels in the fall. After my injury, I had a lot of time off and I just decided to test free agency,” she said. “I had to make the best choice for my family and my basketball career. And I just felt like the Spice Squirrels have a lot to offer me.”
Toward the end of the Q&A, founder Blasucci touched on an empowering point about the team, an aspect that was the documentary’s most lasting impression.
“I went to an all girls high school and I learned that girls can be the best of friends if they allow themselves to kind of let go of all the claw,” she said. “You know, ‘Ah, I need to get ahead of you!’ If you could just let that go, you can have such deep relationships with girls and I feel that with all of you girls and I, at no point, ever feel jealous or envious or anything. I just feel 100% support and I feel grateful and it’s wonderful. I suggest any girl out there that doesn’t have a tight group of girlfriends to really search for that, because as hard as it may be, you find these people that are so important to you and I feel that with all of these girls and I’m really grateful.”
Read More: Morgan Spurlock on Why Documentaries Matter More Than Ever
“Pistol Shrimps,” which is the first original feature film released by Seeso, an ad-free comedy streaming service, premieres today, June 16, on seeso.com. The film was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year and was executive produced by Morgan Spurlock, the filmmaker behind “Super Size Me.” Check out the trailer below!
Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Festivals newsletter here.
Related stories'Life, Animated' Trailer: Young Boy Unable to Speak Finds Words in Disney ClassicsWatch: 'Hamilton' Star Lin-Manuel Miranda Busts Out A Ramen-Inspired RapReview: 'The Witness' Throws Shocking New Light On New York's Most Infamous Murder...
- 16/6/2016
- por Kyle Kizu
- Indiewire
While she’ll be seen in comedies both on the indie and studio side this summer (Joshy and Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, respectively), Aubrey Plaza will also be featured in a documentary. The Pistol Shrimps follows her all-female basketball team, also made up of Melissa Stern, Maria Blasucci, and more, as they compete in last year’s recreational season. Coming from producer Morgan Spurlock and director Brent Hodge (I Am Chris Farley, A Brony Tale), the first trailers have landed ahead of a release this week.
We said in our review, “As far as sports documentaries about female friendships, there are too few and Pistol Shrimps, as enjoyable as it is, really is exactly what it is — like the league and the podcast it’s something to do. Surely one’s free time can be better spent elsewhere screening a film that’s more profound, but that is not what this is, the same way this rec league is not the Wnba.”
Check out the trailers and poster below.
“The Pistol Shrimps” is the fun new documentary following the 2015 season of the popular all female basketball team called The Pistol Shrimps – made up of actors, comedians and models in La. Comic actress Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation), model Melissa Stern and actress/writer Maria Blasucci (Ghost Ghirls) are part of the ragtag team of trash-talking, hard fouling, wisecracking women who bring a much-needed edge to the game. Off the court, these women are also making it happen as writers, musicians, actors, comedians, moms and wives, who always have time on Tuesday nights for their games. The Pistol Shrimps are truly fearless women who are both ballers on and off the court.
The Pistol Shrimps arrives on SeeSo on June 16th.
We said in our review, “As far as sports documentaries about female friendships, there are too few and Pistol Shrimps, as enjoyable as it is, really is exactly what it is — like the league and the podcast it’s something to do. Surely one’s free time can be better spent elsewhere screening a film that’s more profound, but that is not what this is, the same way this rec league is not the Wnba.”
Check out the trailers and poster below.
“The Pistol Shrimps” is the fun new documentary following the 2015 season of the popular all female basketball team called The Pistol Shrimps – made up of actors, comedians and models in La. Comic actress Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation), model Melissa Stern and actress/writer Maria Blasucci (Ghost Ghirls) are part of the ragtag team of trash-talking, hard fouling, wisecracking women who bring a much-needed edge to the game. Off the court, these women are also making it happen as writers, musicians, actors, comedians, moms and wives, who always have time on Tuesday nights for their games. The Pistol Shrimps are truly fearless women who are both ballers on and off the court.
The Pistol Shrimps arrives on SeeSo on June 16th.
- 13/6/2016
- por Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Returning to the form of feature-length documentary to chronicle a subculture and the people that take pleasure in it, Brent Hodge’s third feature The Pistol Shrimps follows a recreational basketball team with a starting line-up that includes comediennes Aubrey Plaza and Molly Hawkey. The Shrimps, started as an impromptu team, inspired the league to grow into something somewhat serious — the team is even required to hold practices now. Oddly the team and the league inspire a podcast (Pistol Shrimp Radio) hosted by Matt Gourley and Mark McConville mixing alt comedy, geeky fandom and sports talk radio as the men become experts on all things Pistol Shrimps. This of course requires more energy, dedication and mental bandwidth than most men would have and, although they’re not the focus, their passion is reminiscent of the men that love My Little Pony, the subject of Hodge’s first feature A Brony Tale.
- 27/4/2016
- por John Fink
- The Film Stage
Exclusive: Fans of comedy and basketball will get two for the price of one later this year as newly-established ad-free streaming comedy channel Seeso has acquired worldwide rights to the documentary The Pistol Shrimps, directed by Brent Hodge and executive produced by Morgan Spurlock. The film will have its world premiere during the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival. Focusing on the Los Angeles-based all female basketball team of the same name made up of actors, comedians and…...
- 14/4/2016
- Deadline
Exclusive: Warning to haters from Pistol Shrimp baller Aubrey Plaza, just in time for the NBA Playoffs: “You’re either with us or you’re against us — and God help you if you’re against us because we will dunk on your ass so hard!” Here’s a first look at The Pistol Shrimps, a docu-take on the basketball collective made up of actresses, comics and attitude. Shocked — shocked! — to learn that there were no women’s leagues in Los Angeles, they formed their own, and a…...
- 13/4/2016
- Deadline
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