Legends of The Road

Legends of The Road is the deeply moving account of 28 public high school students from Seattle, Washington, who in 1999-2000 created an extraordinary project on a largely unknown baseball phenomenon known as barnstorming. While many are familiar with the Negro Leagues, and many more with iconic players Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson and Buck O’Neil, few are aware of the men who traversed two countries playing the game they loved in the face of rampant prejudice and discrimination - the barnstormers. Their journeys dispelled the notion of white supremacy on the baseball field and fostered the breakdown of racial stereotypes, leading Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to say: “They laid down the first plank in the civil rights movement. The extensive research project culminated with the students’ re-creation of a summer-long tour of the western United States and Canada to commemorate the 100th anniversary of barnstorming. Except this tour was done on bicycles: 71 days, 33 games, 5,100 miles. Legends of the Road offers a comprehensive, behind-the-scenes look at this heart-warming story, as told through candid, student-shot, in-your-face vérité footage. Mixing provocative classroom scenes with captivating video of the epic trip, the story is as inspiring as it is historically significant. (Twin Cities Film Fest)