This project would not have been possible without the fortuitous combination of events.
First, 2012 was the year for Calgary to shine as Canada’s Cultural Capital program. Calgary 2012, the organization setup to make that happen, funded thousands of arts projects large and small across the city. One of the programs they offered was an Artist-in-Residency.
Newly minted documentary filmmaker, Chris Hsiung (me), independent owner of Hidden Story Productions successfully applied for the residency and was sent on a “blind date” with Sport Calgary. It was a great match. My interest in human learning worked well with Sport Calgary’s desire to show what sports can teach people. Together we came up with the idea of interviewing athletes from a diversity of non-mainstream sports.
The call was put out and we had a number of respondents. Sadly I had to select out other interesting sports like Padel, Aussie football, and ultimate frisbee. In the end it was the selected six that became the backbone of the documentary series.