LOCAL Houston | The City Guide MARCH 2016 | Page 38

GISH AT THE MOVIES

FOOTBALL FLICKS

Whitney and Alex Douglas

University of Houston Cougar football player
Football is on my brain. I have never been a big football fan, perhaps because my parents are UC
Berkeley-trained Californians, but seeing the movie
“Concussion” recently really soured me on the
sport and especially the NFL.
But, we are in Texas and this month is the Sports Issue,
so I decided to buck it up and git over my bad self and
focus my thoughts on America’s most popular sport and
how filmmakers treat it. After a quick search on the
internet, I found this site – www.americanfootballfilms.com –
which boasts a whopping 53 films on the topic.
Several of those films take place in Texas, including
Friday Night Lights and Dazed and
Confused, which I’ll put in the football film category
since I love it so much. The most recent Texas football
film is My All American, which was shot in Dallas,
Austin and San Antonio and stars one of my fave-butnot-seen-enough actors AARON ECKHART as Longhorns
coach DARRELL ROYAL.
And then there are the Coogs, who haven’t been represented in celluloid until now. My dad worked at the
University of Houston for almost four decades so we
learned to keep up with the UH football team and I
even got to meet SHASTA – then the team’s live cougar
mascot – when they kept him in a cage on the campus. They haven’t been much to talk about until last
year when the underdog Cougars won the Peach
Bowl against Florida State University.

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TDECU Stadium
It was that win, along with a desire to tell the story of
the team, that convinced the Houston-based husband
and wife co-founders of Sculpting With Time
Productions to make their short film, The UH
Football Experience, which you can see here:
www.sculptingwithtime.com/UH_Football_Experience.html. It’s a
lovely film packed with dramatic moves, great short
story telling and terrific production values. And the football team wasn’t the only winner – Alex and Whitney

Douglas won three Lone Star EMMYs for outstanding
achievement as Director and Editor (Sports) and
Photographer (Sports). Also nominated for Writer and
Audio, the film spotlights the University as it ushers in a
new era with the $128 million state-of-the-art TDECU
stadium. With sweeping aerials and behind the
scenes footage, the seven-minute video offers a
glimpse into the University’s athletic program as they
prepare for its historic 2015 season, led by head
coach TOM HERMAN. Herman’s got a great quote in the
film: “On our jersey it doesn’t say The University of
Houston – it just says Houston and that’s not by accident.”

WANT TO SEE MORE ART FILMS?
CHECK OUT THESE VENUES

14 Pews (www.14pews.org)
Alamo Drafthouse (www.drafthouse.com)
Asia Society (www.asiasociety.org/texas)
Aurora Picture Show (www.aurorapictureshow.org)
Blaffer Art Museum (www.blafferartmuseum.org)
Café Brasil (www.cafe-brasil.net)
Contemporary Arts Museum (www.camh.org)
Discovery Green (www.discoverygreen.com)
DiverseWorks (www.diverseworks.org)
Holocaust Museum (www.hmh.org)
Jewish Community Center (www.erjcchouston.org)
Landmark River Oaks Theatre (www.landmarktheatres.com)
Menil Collection (www.menil.org)
Miller Outdoor Theatre (www.milleroutdoortheatre.com)
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (www.mfah.org/films)
Orange Show (www.orangeshow.org)
Rice Cinema (www.ricecinema.rice.edu)
Sundance Cinemas (www.sundancecinemas.com)

And so it was there that I found myself in alignment
with the UH football team – or at least its coach.
Anyone who loves Houston is ok in my (play) book!

By Sarah Gish | www.gishcreative.com