They're Playing Basketball
TFI Suppport
Logline
It's not whether you win or lose; it's how you play the game, but who says you have to play the game the way everyone else does? An experiment in equality inspires an unconventional coach and a reclusive math professor to revolutionize the game of basketball through egalitarianism and algorithms. This experiment becomes known as "The System", and it is an unyielding attack of mathematics against conventional sports wisdom - a frenzied game of ordered chaos that transforms a rag-tag team of geeks and freaks into conference champions. Who needs starters when you have statistics?
Sam Lobel
Writer/ Producer
Sam migrated from Texas to New York by way of Iowa where he picked up a degree in unemployment (A.K.A.
Theatre) at Grinnell College. He initially worked production on independent films, but hunger pangs and a near
stint with scurvy drove him to work on larger studio films. Sam soon divided his time between Assistant
Directing independent films and working Locations on studio films for directors like Sydney Lumet and James L. Brooks. He produced Love Thy Neighbor, featuring Roy Scheider and Scott Wolf, while finishing his law degree at Cardozo School of Law. He was an associate producer on Sorry, Haters, starring Robin Wright Penn, and Corn, starring Jena Malone. In the world of television Sam has produced and/or consulted for numerous domestic and international networks, including: ABC, MTV-Networks, Court TV, TNT-Russia, and Warner Brothers Television's Telepictures. He was the lead US producer for 75 episodes of Russia's top rated prime-time series Golod for TNT.
Marc Lebowitz
Producer
Marc Lebowitz is an entertainment lawyer who has represented producers in all aspects of their business including - on the front end -- production financing (independent and studio), co-production arrangements, rights acquisition, split rights agreements, and deals with producers, directors, talent, and other elements, and -- on the back end - acting as production counsel, negotiating deals with distributors (foreign and domestic) and managing compliance with distribution deals. Marc has also spent 15 years litigating and resolving disputes in these and related areas in the entertainment and media industries. Marc is also counsel to several online media companies and publishers and has lectured on privacy and publicity rights, defamation, fair use, and related matters and has provided commentary on national news regarding these issues.
Kerry Barden
Producer
Kerry Barden has cast nearly 200 films, plays and television shows. Some of the highlights include Boys Don't Cry, American Psycho, Good Will Hunting, I Shot Andy Warhol, Snow Angels, Pineapple Express, Everybody's Fine, Teeth, Shakespeare in Love, The House of Mirth, The Station Agent, The Visitor, Pecker, Cecil B. Demented, and the pilot and first two seasons of Sex and the City (Emmy nomination for best cast). Theatre credits include James Joyce's The Dead, Kafka's The Castle and Danny Hoch's `Til the Break of Dawn. Kerry is currently partnered with Paul Schnee at Barden/Schnee Casting. Kerry's producing credits include: the award winning Sue by Amos Kollek; the Austin Film Festival's Audience Award winner Alma Mater by Hans Canosa; Conversations With Other Women, also by Hans Canosa, which garnered a best actress award for Helena Bonham Carter at the Tokyo Film Festival; and, Temptation by Mark Tarlov, which opened the first NY Musical Film Festival. Kerry has also served on many juries and panels including the Hampton's Film Festival, the Vancouver Film Festival, the Newport Film Festival and the Gotham Awards. He has taught graduate seminars at Columbia and NYU and acting classes around NYC.