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See the full story · 1 sourcesAMHERST — A documentary more than two decades in the making is coming home to Amherst.
“I Was a Hurricane,” a three-part series following the 2003 Amherst Regional High School varsity boys’ ultimate season, will have its world premiere Aug. 8 on the Town Common.
The 2003 varsity team was coached by Tiina Booth and Woody Clift. The Hurricanes that year fought their way to the ultimate national championship, where a controversial self-officiated foul call threatened to derail their season.
“That’s where our story begins,” said Lexi Jamieson Marsh, an independent filmmaker who has been working to bring “I Was a Hurricane” to the big screen.
The game of ultimate has a rich history in Amherst. Here, Amherst Regional High School's Evan Carson, right, tries to stop Radnor High School's Jake Belitsky during the semifinal game of the Amherst Ultimate Invitational at Amherst Regional High School in 2015. (DAVID MOLNAR / THE REPUBLICAN) DAVID MOLNAR / THE REPUBLICAN
The documentary comprises video footage from 2003 and present-day interviews with former team members and coaches.
Marsh credits Amherst community members and filmmakers Bob Pollak and Nate McGarigal with capturing more than 200 hours of team footage and preserving it for two decades.
Former Amherst Hurricane Draper White, who worked with Marsh on a previous project, digitized the footage and brought it to Marsh’s attention.
“I think I had assumed, ‘Oh, this is game footage, we’re just going to be watching games,’” Marsh told The Republican. “But I was immediately hooked as soon as I started looking at it. I was popping in and out of all these different files that were named whatever had been handwritten on the tape.”
What really amazed her when going over the footage, Marsh said, was that it was “a time she didn’t recognize anymore.”
“The lack of technology really hit me hard,” Marsh said. “You don’t have anyone holding smartphones. Everybody’s very present, you see people communicating with each other, and the second thing was just how unaware of the camera people were. In this day and age, we’re all so aware of being recorded at any moment.”
Members of the 2003 Amherst Regional High School ultimate team hug each other, in archival footage that's part of Lexi Jamieson Marsh's documentary "I Was a Hurricane." (Photo courtesy of Lexi Jamieson Marsh) Submitted
Marsh added there is an authenticity to the footage that she thinks people will find captivating, whether or not they’re fans of the sport of ultimate. Frisbee, by the way, is a proprietary name brand for throwable flying discs.
“You can substitute ultimate for whatever you were passionate about in high school. The nostalgia element brings out a moment in time where your whole life could have been dedicated to the thing you cared most about, the people who understood you, and the place you found belonging in,” Marsh said.
In addition to the archival footage, Marsh set out to interview as many of the team’s former players as possible. The goal, she said, was to understand the individual impacts that 2003 season had on each player.
A Frisbee collection. It's a brand name. The sport that emerged from it is called ultimate. (Joe Proudman/The Star-Ledger, File) Joe Proudman
One of the people interviewed was Luke Zimmerman, a captain of the 2003 Hurricanes team who, in the trailer for the documentary, said: “Ultimate became my life. Saying it was important honestly understates it.”
Marsh also interviewed Booth, the coach of the 2003 Hurricanes’ ultimate frisbee team, who told her: “We were always trying out in horrible weather, and we were always last to get any kind of fields, but I do know, they were all in.”
Marsh was able to talk with members of the Hurricanes’ championship rivals — Paideia High School from Atlanta, Georgia — and that team’s coach, which she said added an important “holistic experience” to the documentary.
“We live in a world where all of our interactions have some sort of ripple effect, and you can’t be competitive if you don’t have someone to compete against, so what was their experience like?” Marsh told The Republican.
Lexi Jamieson Marsh is the independent filmmaker behind "I Was a Hurricane," premiering on the Amherst Town Common in August. (Provided photo) Courtesy photo
Community helps push film to finish line
Making “I Was a Hurricane” did not come without its hurdles, and Marsh noted the financial difficulties of being an independent filmmaker as one of the biggest.
To get “I Was a Hurricane” past the finish line, Marsh and her team turned to crowdfunding. A GoFundMe was set up and raised nearly $12,000 — enough to get it on the big screen.
“The fact that we are existing as a documentary is a direct result of those donations,” Marsh said.
To honor the community behind the documentary, it only felt right to stage the world premiere of the film in the place where it all began — Amherst.
Action from the 25th Amherst Invitational Ultimate Tournament on May 7, 2016, at Amherst high school. Here is a matchup between Amherst girls varsity and Longmeadow. (KEVIN DILLON / MASSLIVE) KEVIN DILLON / MASSLIVE
“The story of the documentary is very community-focused, the making of the documentary is also a community effort, and the Amherst premiere is going to be the ultimate community event,” Marsh said. “It’s going to be free. It’s going to be open to the public.”
Marsh has been busy working behind the scenes to stage a reunion, and members of the 2003 Hurricanes team, as well as their rival team, are expected to be in attendance, as are current Amherst coaches and athletes.
Tiina Booth, coach of the 2003 Amherst Regional High School ultimate team, is interviewed by filmmaker Lexi Jamieson Marsh for the documentary "I Was a Hurricane." (Photo courtesy of Lexi Jamieson Marsh) Submitted
The premiere on the Town Common also will serve a second purpose — filming a fitting epilogue for the doc...
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