Category Archives: In Production

The In Production category are billiards movies, billiards television episodes, billiards short films, and billiards web series that are not yet complete.

Second Chance (in production)

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Editor’s Note:  Since my original posting, this movie has been released on DVD.  For a complete review of Second Chance, please visit my blog post here.

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More than two million Taiwanese, nearly 10% of the population, play billiards. Pool is now the second-most-popular sport in Taiwan next to baseball. Today, in the World Pool-Billiard Association rankings, four of the top 10 women, and one of the top 10 men, are Taiwanese. This all begs a fundamental question: When will we see a full-length billiards movie from Taiwan? [See Note 1]

Second ChanceIt turns out such a movie exists, although the details about the film are still rather fuzzy. Produced by Double Edge Entertainment, [UPDATE: the movie is called Second Chance.] This title replaces the earlier reported title, Nine Ball, by the publication Taiwan Cinema 2014, as well as the former working title, A Girl Got Her Cue, which appeared on the Double Edge Entertainment website. The 100-minute film is directed by Wen-Yen Kung.

The movie may still be in production, as the Double Edge website suggests, or may have been completed this year, as the Taiwan Cinema guide suggests. IMDB unfortunately is no help. It has no mention of Nine Ball or A Girl Got Her Cue. [UPDATE:  under the name Second Chance, the movie is now expected to premiere in Taiwan theaters on November 7, 2014.]

Fortunately, there does seem to be some consensus around the plot of the movie. The story focuses on Shine, a beautiful girl, who recently lost her parents in a car accident. Faced with the likelihood that she will be sent to a foster home, Shine is adopted by her uncle, Feng, a former billiards player who she does not know and who has a taste for gambling, drinking, and smoking. Billiards becomes the unlikely, yet critical, connection point for Shine and Feng, who ultimately forge a family bond through pool-playing.

Second ChanceThese scant details are all I’ve been able to uncover about the film, so readers, please share anything you hear about the movie. Given Double Edge Entertainment is a recognized distributor of films (e.g., Killing Them Softly; The Grey; Killer Elite) in Taiwan, I’m hopeful this film will become available for viewing soon. [Update:  the accompanying “9-Ball” music video shows some footage from the film.]

[Note 1: Nine Ball may be the first full-length billiards movie from Taiwan, but it is not Taiwan’s first show about billiards. That award goes to Taiwanese billiards television series Nine-Ball from 2005. Confused yet?]

Raising the Hustler – A Billiards Documentary in Production

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In the United States, there are approximately 11.5 million baseball players of all ages.  How many can name at least one professional player?  75%? Certainly, at least half, with many citing team rosters, wearing the jerseys of favorite players, collecting memorabilia about the pros, and/or talking about the legends of yesterday.

In the United States, approximately 40 million people played pool at least once in the last 3 years.  How many can name a professional billiards player? 1%? Not a chance.  The American Poolplayers Association (APA) has about 265,000 members.  Can even 10% name one of the sport’s legends besides Willie Mosconi or Minnesota Fats (no, not the Jackie Gleason character from The Hustler)?

Raising the Hustler - Billiards DocumentaryIf you’re wondering where I’m going with this jeremiad, I’m channeling the very spot-on sentiments of Angel Levine, the director and producer behind the highly anticipated documentary Raising the Hustler. It has already taken Levine 7 years to film, costing her “every dime [she] ever had and maybe some dimes [she] hadn’t” to collect more than 600 hours of footage about the legends of pool so she can help them tell their story in their own words to a generation that is perilously close to forgetting their existence.

“I got tired of watching my legends die broke and penniless.  They need to be heralded,” Levine told me in an hour-long interview in late August.  “[Pool players] are looked at so poorly in this country.  They’re looked at as gamblers, hustlers…Compare this to the Philippines, parts of Asia. Pool players there have a fan base.”

In a 2003 article in the Asia Times Online, Levine’s point jumped off the page: “Mention the sport of pool or billiards [in the Philippines] and you’ve tapped into something much deeper in the Filipino soul, something that is a part of the very fabric of this society…Filipinos of all persuasions will be able to tell everything you need to know about a kick shot, the break, a billiard shot and a safety shot… If a Filipino emerges victorious [at the World Professional Pool Championship], expect a ticker-tape parade in Manila.”

In fact, Levine’s lament goes beyond recognizing just the great old-timers.  “Pool is dying in the US. ESPN won’t work with the men anymore…Women have to pay ESPN to be on TV.  Nobody watches, nobody cares.  The amateurs don’t even know who Johnny Archer is.  They only know the Asian Woman [Jeanette “Black Widow” Lee].

Raising the Hustler - Chris's BilliardsSo, Levine set out to make her documentary not only to honor her idols, but to honor her sport.  And, fortunately, she is the perfect person to do it. “I grew up playing with legends of the sport in Chicago.  All of the greatest players have come through or lived here, and I know most of them and could go where most couldn’t with a camera, which is why I have carte blanche access to the industry…Initially I decided to focus my documentary only on the stars around my room at Chris’s Billiards (where The Color of Money was partially filmed).  It was on a smaller scale.  Only after I started peeling the onion did I realize I had to start traveling.  And the more I did, the more I fucking cried.”

The more stories Levine told me about the pool greats, the more self-aware I became of my own pathetic lack of knowledge about them.  Leonard “Bugs” Rucker.  Santos Sambajon.  Riley “Jet” Johnson.  Sang Lee.  Freddy “the Beard” Bentivegna. The interview became a history lesson and my own personal wake-up call.

Raising the Hustler - Billy Incardona

“Pittsburgh Billy” Incardona

Unfortunately, we will all have to wait a little longer to view the complete fruits of Levine’s efforts, as she recently announced that she has postponed the release of Raising the Hustler until 2015. On the positive, she just submitted a 10-minute documentary to Sundance entitled Chasing Wincardona, which is all about the great one-pocket player “Pittsburgh Billy” Incardona.  (I look forward to reviewing that film in a subsequent post.)

If there is a tragic irony to Levine’s story, it is that since she started filming, 31 of her interview subjects have passed away.  When she told me that, I nearly collapsed, incredulous that so many greats could fade from the annals of billiards history.  But, then I also smiled, grateful that someone like Angel Levine could be so passionate and committed to make sure their stories were documented and their tales will have the chance to inspire and educate future generations of pool players.

To stay informed about Raising the Hustler, like the movie on Facebook.

8-Ball: Coming to a Theater Near You

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Suppose I told you there was an upcoming billiards movie that borrows storytelling, narration, and plot elements from Godfather Part II, GoodFellas, The Usual Suspects, and The Silence of the Lambs?

Yeah, I thought I might have your attention now.

Well, then get ready for 8-Ball, a billiards crime drama that is expected to be released at the New York Film Festival this September.

8 Ball - Billiards MovieI had the pleasure of interviewing David Barroso, the lead actor and executive producer of 8-Ball.  Though he was on only 2 hours of sleep, Barroso was incredibly personable and talkative about the film, and his passion and enthusiasm were contagious.

Barroso was rather secretive about the complete plot, but the gist of the story is that it begins 10 years ago with a fateful encounter at a pool hall in Queens, New York, between Ramone Torzo, the neighborhood mobster, who is a great pool player, and four neighborhood friends.  When a phony bet is made on a game of 8-ball, the situation goes horribly wrong, and Torzo is forced to flee across the country. As the film shifts from black-and-white to color, the story picks up a decade later with Torzo, having left his billiards life (among other things) behind, comfortably settled into the Hollywood lifestyle.  But, that ability to escape his past is threatened when a local cop, who is also a pool player, finds him, threatening to undermine his new lifestyle.

Seemingly, it’s a thriller that has the usual share of twists, suspense and dead bodies.  But, this story is based on the life of a real mobster, for whom “pool was his life.” And so while gangster movie fans will rejoice over the newest true crime biopic, billiards movies fans will equally celebrate a movie in which one-third focuses on pool (and was filmed on location between Rack Em-Up in Queens and Mr. Pockets in Manhattan Beach, CA).

The story behind the billiards movie is as compelling as the movie itself.  Much of the movie was filmed 10 years ago by David Manzano, the original director and writer.  But, the movie stalled when Manzano left to pursue his music career.  Fortunately, Barroso would not let the movie wither.  He says, “I wanted to get this movie done.  I owed it to a lot of people.” Along with cinematographer Adrian Manzano, Barroso committed himself to raising the financing and finishing the movie, which included filming the remaining 40-50%, attracting all-star talent like actor Paul Ben-Victor (who fans of The Wire will forever remember as Spiros “Vondas” Vondopoulos) and assembling a killer soundtrack with music from The Rolling Stones, James Brown, and Eminem.

So, whether you’re a movie lover or a pool player, keep your eyes open for 8-Ball.  Fingers crossed it will premiere at the New York Film Festival, before moving on to the Hollywood Film Festival (October), the 10th Annual Big Apple Film Festival (November) and the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City (January).  And, if all goes well, we should see it on the big screen in select cities around April, 2014.

For ongoing updates, check out the film’s Facebook page and homepage.