Honest Engine Film’s upcoming documentary “The Rules of Lacrosse: And the Men Who Break Them!” Is set to be shown at various film festivals in the near future.
With Brant Davis, a producer from Kahnawa:ke Mohawk Territory, who worked on films such as The Last of the Mohicans, TNT: Tecumseh, and The War That America Made.
Brant recently established his own production company, Real Mohawk Entertainment. DIRT MCCOMBER: LAST OF THE MOHICANS is his first film as a producer.
This film covers much of men’s lacrosse, from its rich, Indigenous history to the present forms including both the box and field game styles. This documentary explores several themes from forming and maintaining professional teams and their players, college and NCAA play, the wooden stick controversy, and the growing of the game internationally from its North American roots.
In a section of the film entitled “Honour and Recognize Those Who Have Played Before You,”Gretzky names the best box player he has ever seen play, Garylord Powless, from the Six Nations Reserve. Other members of the Powless family are also featured, along with other famous players and teams.
The film provides both a serious and humorous look at men’s lacrosse. Sometimes in these extremely competitive games, rules do get broken. We hope to show the good, the bad, and the not too ugly sides of one of the fastest growing sports in the world.
The Directors Statement from rulesoflacrosse.com provided by film Director Joanne Storkan reads: “I fell into the world of lacrosse while doing research for a screenplay I was writing entitled STIX, which is a coming-of-age story similar to THE KARATE KID, only with a lacrosse back-drop. While interviewing a coach and former player, Tom Ryan, I learned that he had just produced a short film about his experiences in the world of lacrosse entitled STIR IT UP. After viewing the film, which I really loved and found very interesting, I proposed that we convert his short movie into a feature-length film and incorporate more aspects of the sport that were not covered or delved into in Tom’s 26-minute film. After we filmed more games and interviews, we learned that for several reasons we could not merge our new footage with his older film. Our choice was either to scrap the project entirely or create a new movie. We chose the latter, and thus was born THE RULES OF LACROSSE—AND THE MEN WHO BREAK THEM.”
After showing in the Syracuse International Film Festival, and the San Diego International Film Festival, the film has made its way to London, Ontario for the Forest City Film Festival, to be shown Wednesday, October 20th, at 10:00 am, at the Wolf Performance Hall, 251 Dundas St, London, ON N6A 6H64.
