RESISTANCE CINEMA Presents “NOT JUST A GAME” A Media Education Foundation Production with DAVE ZIRIN, 2010 62 minutes
WHEN: Sunday June 26, 2011 1:15 pm
WHERE: Community Church NY Gallery Room 28 East 35th st. btwn Park & Madison Aves.
ADMISSION: Free, donatins appreciated
SPECIAL GUEST: Filmmaker DAVE ZIRIN via SKYPE
“This is a film that takes sports seriously, as a cultural force, a shared social space, and a political force that reflects and in turn shapes our often conflicting ideas and beliefs about who we are, how we view others and how we see ourselves as a country.” -Dave Zirin –
We are so pleased that Dave Zirin has agreed to join us for a SKYPE interview and Q&A after the screening. He is the most unique sportswriter of his generation and perhaps of all time. Fueled by his innate love for sports he dives into his subject with that audacity that is always characteristic of those who have broken the taboos. Yet he does it not only with boldness but with sensitive and careful
consideration. While others have written about those occasional, well known collisions between sports and politics, Zirin’s keen eye penetrates deeper and unveils the ever present politics lying just below the surface of normalcy.
We've been told again and again that sports and politics don't mix, that games are just games and athletes should just "shut up and play." But according to Nation magazine sports editor Dave Zirin, this notion is just flat-out wrong. In Not Just a Game, the powerful new 
documentary based on his bestselling book The People's History of Sports in the United States, Zirin argues that far from providing merely escapist entertainment, American sports have long been at the center of some of the major political debates and struggles of our time.
In a fascinating tour of the good, the bad, and the ugly of American sports culture,
Zirin first traces how American sports have glamorized militarism, racism, sexism, and homophobia, then excavates a largely forgotten history of rebel athletes who stood up to power and fought for social justice beyond the field of play. The result is as deeply moving as it is exhilarating: nothing less than an alternative history of 
political struggle in the United States as seen through the games its people have played.
DAVE ZIRIN is the bestselling author of five books, the sports editor of The Nation magazine, and the host of Sirius XM Satellite's popular weekly show, Edge of Sports Radio. His blog The Edge of Sports is read each week by thousands of people across the country. He is also a columnist for SLAM Magazine, The Progressive, and Sports Illustrated online, and his writing has appeared in numerous other publications, including the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the New York Daily News, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Zirin’s TV appearances include ESPN's Outside the Lines, MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, MSNBC's Morning Joe, The Rachel Maddow Show, and Democracy Now with Amy Goodman. His latest book, Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games We Love - has just been released from Scribner. In 2009 he was named one of the Utne Reader’s “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World”.