For the past six years, Dave Filipi, film and video curator
at Columbus’ Wexner Center for the Arts, has presented a program of
archival baseball footage at the Cleveland Museum of Art (11150 East
Blvd., 216.421.7350, clevelandart.org/film). This year’s
program, Dave Filipi Presents Rare Films From the Baseball Hall of
Fame includes a collection of short films that includes: motion
studies of Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson; a documentary about the
late, great Roberto Clemente; and a silent clip of Jackie Robinson
participating in his first training camp. “It was the first year Jackie
Robinson was with the Brooklyn Dodgers in a minor- league capacity,”
says Filipi. “For the most part, it’s a home movie. But then all of a
sudden, you see Jackie Robinson walking up to the plate, and he gets a
hit and rounds first. I don’t know if that’s literally his first at-bat
with the Montreal Royals, the Dodgers’ farm team, but it’s pretty
cool.” There’s also a clip from a half-hour film called Baseball:
The Now Career, an attempt to recruit young kids into the sport
that includes cameos by Nolan Ryan and Johnny Bench. The films screen
at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 27. Filipi can’t attend because of a
scheduling conflict, but CMA’s John Ewing will use Filipi’s notes to
introduce the clips. Tickets: $8.
To show it does indeed have a sense of humor, Positively
Cleveland has launched its Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Video
Contest, in response to the fake Cleveland tourism video that’s
become a YouTube sensation. Opposing sports teams (the Boston Red Sox,
for starters) have shown the fake video to put down our city, so
Positively Cleveland hopes the entries will have a more positive spin.
The day the contest was announced, its site got more than 1,000 hits
from prospective contestants. Videos can’t cost more than two bucks to
make or be longer than two minutes. The deadline is May 27. The two
winning videos — which will be announced live at the Positively
Cleveland offices (the Higbee Bldg., 100 Public Square, Suite 100) at 2
p.m. Thursday, May 28 — will be played in the Cleveland Plus
Visitors Center on Public Square and featured on Positively Cleveland’s
website. Prize packages include everything from Cleveland Indians
tickets to gift certificates to local bars and restaurants. Find more
information at positivelycleveland.com/hastilymade.
This article appears in May 20-26, 2009.
