Sports documentaries usually go something like this: An emerging athlete pursues his or her lofty dreams despite tragedy and crazy challenges, and ultimately wins the big game/contract/gold medal in a blaze of glory.
But some top athletes don’t have a trail of tragedies behind them. They didn’t have crazy challenges to overcome. They grew up in supportive families. They worked hard, and they won the big game/contract/gold medal with their psyches still in tact. They’re nice people who happen to be icons.
How do you make a compelling documentary about a well-adjusted icon? What’s the narrative?
Well, if you’re Vancouver filmmakers Michael Hamilton and Corey Ogilvie, and you’re set on making a documentary about BC’s own nice-guy NBA superstar Steve Nash, you decide that being a well adjusted, nice-guy icon is the narrative.
“The story is a guy that is doing it on his own terms and he’s managed to keep his nose above water,” says Hamilton. “He’s the anomaly.”
The end result is Nash, a feature-length documentary now available for purchase and rental on iTunes and other VOD platforms.
To bring Nash to cinematic life, Hamilton and Ogilvie conducted interviews with the celebrated athlete and more than sixty of his friends, colleagues, rivals, and relatives.
They intercut these revealing chats with footage from basketball games and of the nice-guy icon in his car, in locker rooms, and skateboarding in New York City.
What emerges is a portrait of a humble, hard-working and pensive guy from Victoria, BC, who – like the animated Sisyphus figure they cut to as their story unfolds – pushed himself to the top of the sports world.
“This guy is 100 per cent true to his word,” says Hamilton. “Whatever he believes, whatever he puts out in the universe, that’s who he is and it’s so refreshing.”
Hamilton had known Nash for years when he and Ogilvie approached him about documenting his rise through the NBA ranks.
Shooting took place between 2010 and 2013. Hamilton – who got his first taste of showbiz in the sixth grade screening Disney films for his classmates in a far-flung Alberta town – and Ogilvie (Occupy: The Movie) thought they'd finally finished their movie when, in 2013, it was announced that Nash would be moving on from the Phoenix Suns to the LA Lakers.
“We all thought, ‘Well, we’ve got to make it relevant,’ so we went back and we got some pretty cool characters to help us tell that side of the story,” says Hamilton.
Those characters include David Beckham, Andy Garcia, Kobe Bryant, and Snoop Dogg.
Also making an appearance in Nash: The most powerful man on the planet, American President Barack Obama.
The interview with President Obama – himself a well-documented basketball fan and an admirer of Nash – materialized when Hamilton set out to interview Marvin Nicholson, a former classmate of Nash’s who just happens to work in the White House as a presidential aide.
It was Nicholson who suggested that Hamilton attempt to arrange an interview with the President for his doc.
It took a year to iron out the details for the interview, which was ultimately conducted in the White House.
“Until he was in that room, you never knew if it was going to happen or not,” recalls Hamilton. “He rolled into the room, and he’s so eloquent, and it was amazing. We had five minutes with him. As fast as he came in, he was gone.”
Hamilton says the titular athlete has been supportive of the film since day one.
“[Nash] blessed this 150 per cent. There’s no way we could have done it without him being on board,” he says. “But he’s really humble. He did say, ‘you guys have worked really hard on this and I think you did a really great job,’ so that’s the most we got, but that’s pretty good.”
For more on Nash, visit NashtheMovie.com.
