One Golden Summer
First screened and reviewed in October 2025
Director: Kevin Shaw. Documentary about the 2014 U.S. Little League championship team, who were later stripped of that title under contentious and unclear circumstances. In Brief:
Spirited, layered inquiry into a disheartening episode, even if it halts some lines of inquiry before it should.
VOR:②
I can't say that originality of filmmaking is what distinguishes this film, though it valuably revives a suspiciously foreclosed discussion.
One Golden Summer, about the triumphant ascent of the all-12-year-old, all-Black, Chicago-raised U.S. Little League champions of 2014 is a hearty, multi-toned documentary. It's built as an almost perfect parabola: 40 minutes of genuinely thrilling ascent, then 40 minutes of controversy, grown-up error, tarnishing, chicanery, and malaise. Director Kevin Shaw, one of the maestros of the phenomenal and underwatched docuseries America to Me, manages the tricky feat of making this story unpredictable (there are twists, enigmas, and riddles wrapped in enigmas) and also all-too-predictable (a team of hardworking Black boys achieves something incredible, so of course someone had to take it away).
I admit there were times I wanted Shaw, a journalist before he was a documentarian, to press even further than he does. There's a (white) Judas who got the momentum going against the kids, and he justifiably gets his moment to insist that his motive isn't the one we're all thinking, but I wanted to hear why, among a few available options (including the one he's rejecting), he does think he raised that stink. There are dynamics among the parents that might have profited from more unpacking, especially since the movie does feel a bit mealy-mouthed at times about exactly what did go wrong for this team. The strong aroma is of honest mistakes, and I wouldn't be surprised if a genuine artist is trying to spare some bruised people further embarrassment, but it's a little vague when it means at key moments to be soecific. Technically, it's a sturdy documentary, well lit in the recent interviews and well-edited across an impressive bevy of archival footage, even if the governing aesthetic tilts a little Streaming Service.
But make no mistake, this is a good movie, and an even greater night at the cinema, so I hope it gets a robust life of circulation. The crowd was eating right out of the players' and the filmmakers' hands, which was down to more than home field advantage. The kids were already witty and prepossessing as pre-teens, and they (and their folks) are only more so now. A local Black journalist admits to her credit that she and her peers in media have nobody but themselves to blame for imposing a "rags to riches" frame around this tale, despite the players hailing from patently middle-class families, as if "Black" automatically means "poor" and success is only moving if the victor started with zilch. There are laugh lines too good to spoil, especially from some coaches who are also fathers of players, and who can smell it in a second when they're being patronized. Also, the footage from the games remains electrifying. It's plain as day why these talented and committed adolescents were as successful as they were—and have continued to be, in a range of ways, as per the closing montage.
I was agnostic about the title when I ordered my ticket, finding it a little generic, but I find it pretty resonant having seen the film. It hits different if the accent falls on Golden, or if it falls on One, with all the portent and finality that implies. Shaw has managed to make both of those films in one, full of seemingly direct but carefully nuanced touches like that title. One Golden Summer amply fulfills its responsibilities to its poorly treated but rightly proud subjects, which is the most important thing, but it also makes good.on promises to its audience. I was moved, humbled, enlightened, inspired, and richly entertained. Grade:B
(I originally wrote this capsule on Letterboxd, where you can comment.)
