ESPN ventures into Tribeca Film Festival

Somewhere uptown, Chris Berman was busy prepping for the draft, perhaps by spraying Mel Kiper Jr.'s hair. And in Bristol, Stephen A. no doubt was screaming about Shaq or Dirk or Flip.

Friday night in Tribeca, though, a less visible, more grown-up tentacle of the ESPN Empire was wrapping itself around sports culture.

Wasn't that David Mamet, a writer/director not known to have used the term "booyah," on the red carpet talking about his martial arts film, "Redbelt," literally under the ESPN banner?

It was. And it was only a sliver of the latest initiative from the Bristol Stompers, whose mission to rule the Earth is not always a bad thing.

This time the official goal - "to serve sports fans wherever and however sports content is consumed," as senior VP Ron Semiao put it - has inspired ESPN Films, an umbrella under which it will support projects for theaters and TV, scripted and not.

That includes everything from a theatrical film about Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey that will star Robert Redford and might be in production this fall, to a direct-to-ESPN documentary about Bobby Valentine that will be on TV May 13.

It also includes for the second year ESPN's sliver of the sprawling Tribeca Film Festival, which runs through next Sunday and features a dozen sports-themed movies.

Among them is "Redbelt," which will be in theaters Friday, and "The Zen of Bobby V," which premieres at the festival today.

"I think it reaches out to a demographic that might not otherwise go out to see an independent film," said Craig Hatkoff, a Tribeca founder. "It's a great way to introduce people."

More than half of last year's ESPN/Tribeca films eventually gained distribution. The 12 this year were selected from 183 entrants.

ESPN isn't the only place for sports filmmakers to go. HBO, for one, has a long history of quality documentaries. But the genre needs all the help it can get, notably for serious theatrical projects.

The late 1980s were a golden age, especially for baseball movies. But modern economics are problematic, in part because films about American games have limited international appeal.

Hence broad sports comedies such as those in the Will Ferrell assembly line.

"Our feeling was if we're going to adhere to our company's mission statement, we should really look into extending our brand into sports-themed theatrical films," Semiao said.

"Our intent is not to be a studio or distributor; our parent company [Disney] does that. Our role is to be a production shingle."

It also will be to be keep an eye on the dramatic license Hollywood often takes with based-on-fact sports stories, to the frustration of fans.

"Our feeling is that ESPN can help add authenticity and legitimacy to a project, certainly in the consumer's mind," Semiao said.

"Black Magic," a history of black college basketball shown in March, was the first major event after the launch of ESPN Films.

"The entire genre of documentaries has become hotter across the board," said Connor Schell, ESPN Films' executive producer. "We saw the need to give these films a home and a real destination."

ESPN's slate at Tribeca ranges from football to martial arts to competitive cooking to the Nets' senior dance team.

It includes a "sports day" Saturday with appearances by Mr. Met and the Islanders' Sparky.

For more see www.tribecafilmfestival.org.



Sterling's pitch

This is trouble, Yankees fans: When John Sterling starts worrying, it's time to really worry.

Check out this soliloquy after the Indians' back-to-back, belly-to-belly homers off Andy Pettitte Friday:

"Pettitte isn't going to be undone by the pitch count. He's going to be undone by his bad pitching. Two 3-and-1 meatballs, two 3-and-1 cookies, get lost over the high wall.

"On an overview, the Yankees don't have enough pitching. It's as simple as that. They simply don't have enough pitching. They have two kids who aren't pitching well, Hughes and Kennedy, and their middle-inning bullpen is not very good, and they've lost Bruney, who was pitching well.

"I know they have Joba and Mo, but right now they don't have enough pitching . . . One thing about pitching: You can't disguise your inability to pitch, because you play every single day, and every single day you're going to use the bullpen, and the Yankees don't have enough pitching.

"I know they haven't hit consistently. But on an overview, they simply don't have enough pitching. It's as simple as that." Visit Neil Best's blog every day. It's a real slice of life - and there are lots of pictures, too.