Last October, in advance of the local premier of the documentary Undefeated at Indie Memphis Film Festival, I interviewed directors Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin and producer Rich Middlemas by phone. The film finally gets its wide release in Memphis this weekend. Undefeated will be playing at Paradiso theater beginning tomorrow, and tonight there is a special private screening for the Manassas High School coaches, players, parents, and school staff, hosted Malco Theaters, the Memphis & Shelby County Film/TV Commission, and Memphis mayor A C Wharton.
The film follows the ups and downs of the 2009 football season at Manassas, a North Memphis high school with no history of winning. Here’s the story I wrote for the Indie Memphis preview (fourth item from the top) and here’s my review of the film in this week’s Memphis Flyer. Undefeated won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature last Sunday evening.
Much of the material I got in the interview was left out for space reasons for my story, so here are some excerpts from the cutting-room floor.
