The premiere of the award winning documentary “F(l)ag Football” took place Friday at the Chelsea Cinépolis in NYC to enthusiastic audiences.
The film follows 3 prominent teams comprised of gay athletes within the of the National Gay Flag Football League as they compete to win the championship. The premiere screening Friday was held in support of the League and brought out big names within the community to come support the film. A talkback panel moderated by the NY Giants player and 2-time SuperBowl champion Zak DeOssie allowed for some poignant conversation about the process and significance behind the groundbreaking flick. Happily engaged in the panel was former NFL player Wade A. Davis II, whose career in the NFL was cut short through injuries, and who talked about finding his place in the league after years in professional football, where during his career, “I had all these thoughts in the back of my mind that [being gay] was wrong.” Davis has gone on to be an influential speaker and activist. New York City Councilman Corey Johnson was also in attendance, along with the producer/director of the film Seth Greenleaf, who gave some insight what inspired the making of the documentary.
“The reason I did [the film] was, I noticed a gap in me when I started playing in this league and became a guest of this league, that I had a hard time reconciling what I knew about gay men, and what I knew about football and sports, and I thought this is an inappropriate gap in my correlating these two worlds. It took me a little while to see that come together and to really see and respect these guys as the athletes that they are. There was still this hetero-pride, there was still this preconceived notion about them, and I though ‘this is bad’ it even leads to dangerous dynamics, and between falling in love with these guys and the league, and noticing this about myself, I felt that there was something that needed to be stated,” Greenleaf said.
