Michelle and Barack Obama are teaming up with double Oscar winner Ben Proudfoot and Kyle Thrash for , a short documentary that will make its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival. The film tells a remarkable story from the sporting world that suggests Philadelphia, indeed, deserves to be called the City of Brotherly Love. Thrash, a Philly native, shares directing duties with Proudfoot ( , ).
Higher Ground, the former president and first lady’s production company, partner with Proudfoot’s Breakwater Studios, Cookie Jar & A Dream Studios (a DICK’S Sporting Goods company), and Major League Baseball to present the film, which bows on Sunday at the festival. “ follows Jon McCann, a proud Philadelphian who struggles with his mental health. Jon is equal parts unruly and reverent when it comes to his beloved baseball team, the Philadelphia Phillies, who he covers religiously on his YouTube channel where he is known as The Philly Captain,” notes a description of the documentary.
“When the team’s big new acquisition ($300M over 11 years), Trea Turner, who had just signed one of the biggest contracts in MLB history, enters a downward spiral despite the city’s sky high hopes for him, the infamous fans turn against him, fervidly booing their own player (a time-honored Phillies tradition). Jon, who is from the Bridesburg neighborhood of Philadelphia and intimately knows the ways in and out of despair from his mental health crises, has a contrary impulse – don’t .