Flatball

Flatball has managed to do an excellent job of detailing the overall story of Ultimate Frisbee by focusing in on a few of the sport's driving forces. Detailing the history of an alternative sport can't be easy, but Flatball manages to accomplish the task. The film puts the second generation teams of the eighties into perspective against Ultimate's origins and then carries that process through the nineties and into the modern game. The featured players are both interesting as important to the sport, and charactes in their own right. If you ever played Ultimate, even casually, or if you know someone who is involved in Ultimate and want to gain a better understanding of a great sport, I recommend Flatball.

As the sport grows in popularity and continues to be filmed with greater regularity, the question will more and more be asked, "What were some of the great stories that happened in the past?"

This film takes you down that road and into one of those stories, that of NYNY, and as a bonus shows links to today's game and how it has changed since this story took place.

A tone deaf, narcissistic attempt at glorifying the filmmaker's on-field accomplishments while elevating a miserably unspirited mens team from the 80s. With a brief exception, women serve no purpose in the film, despite the current and robust womens division in Ultimate, but to fawn over the men around them. No sooner had this film been released than it was immediately irrelevant as the filmmaker is clearly out of touch with the current social climate of ultimate and what is happening within the sport in terms of Gender Equity. All of this combined amateur filmmaking leads to an unsatisfying experience.

I have been recently introduced to Ultimate Frisbee and this documentary was an excellent recap of the history of the game, the rivalries and the tremendous passion and commitment of the players.

I loved the introduction to the "spirit of the game" philosophy that may play some part in Ultimate peace!

All round a great watch - highly recommend for the sports enthusiasts.