Trailer:
"Let's take a selfie," Oklahoma City Thunder forward Serge Ibaka tells his eight-year-old daughter
Raine as they sit on a patio early in the film Son of the Congo. Raine stands behind her dad and
plants a kiss on his cheek. Ibaka makes a goofy face and snaps a photo. It's a sweet moment
between the 25-year-old Ibaka and his young daughter but also so much more, as the documentary
that premiered at SXSW Interactive reveals to powerful effect. Ibaka didn't know Raine existed for
the first five years of her life. His father in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, had begged family to
keep her a secret from Ibaka. He wanted to reduce stress on the then-teenage basketball phenom
after Ibaka left their poverty-stricken home to chase a pro hoops future in Europe. (Raine was conceived
with a girlfriend before he left, but not born until after.)Earlier in Ibaka's life, that same father had been
imprisoned without charges for two years as their long-tortured former Belgian colony erupted in
violence yet again. That absence helped send the future NBA star, whose mother had already passed
away, to the streets of Brazzaville, where he spent many nights sleeping on the ground or in cars, often
lacking for food and water.
All this and much more is revealed in Son of the Congo, which follows Ibaka on a trip home this past
summer to tell his incredible story of escaping poverty and violence in Congo to become an NBA
millionaire. The film is notable for a second reason, too, marking the first feature-length documentary
produced by Grantland, the acclaimed ESPN-owned site founded by star columnist Bill Simmons in
2011. The film is also a lifelong dream of Ibaka's.
Last year, a representative of Ibaka emailed Simmons' fan mailbag, which he doesn't check regularly,
proposing a documentary project with Grantland. Simmons happened to catch this message though,
and forwarded it along to David Jacoby, who manages much of the site's podcast and video content.
They determined the offer wasn't a prank, and got acclaimed documentary filmmaker Adam Hootnick
to direct. It would make a nice short, they all initially figured, not unlike previous Grantland productions.
But they quickly realized otherwise.
The production, which runs about an hour, represents new ground for Grantland, but also shouldn't
come as a total surprise. One of Hootnick's slickest film-making tricks in Son of the Congo is weaving
in a second sub-narrative that follows a basketball-obsessed teenage boy from Brazzaville during
Ibaka's trip home.
As powerful as seeing Ibaka visit family, speak Lingala and describe his own former hardship is,
watching a young boy live much like Ibaka once did gives his past an immediacy that otherwise wouldn't
exist. Like Ibaka did once upon time, the teenager plays on outdoor courts without shoes and struggles
to make it under extremely tough circumstances. But make no mistake, Ibaka is the star of this flick. His
trip home provides no shortage of impacting moments.
In one scene, we see him wrestle with how to address a gathering of people asking for money at his door
in Brazzaville. It's a tense situation full of aggression and poignancy at the same time. In another scene,
we see him at a hospital as he fits hearing aids on a young girl who then listens to her mother's voice for
the first time. In another, we see him glow with pride while driving past a billboard for The Ibaka Games,
a basketball showcase he founded in Brazzaville to help young hoops hopefuls there gain the attention
of foreign scouts.
Source: Mashable
"Let's take a selfie," Oklahoma City Thunder forward Serge Ibaka tells his eight-year-old daughter
Raine as they sit on a patio early in the film Son of the Congo. Raine stands behind her dad and
plants a kiss on his cheek. Ibaka makes a goofy face and snaps a photo. It's a sweet moment
between the 25-year-old Ibaka and his young daughter but also so much more, as the documentary
that premiered at SXSW Interactive reveals to powerful effect. Ibaka didn't know Raine existed for
the first five years of her life. His father in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, had begged family to
keep her a secret from Ibaka. He wanted to reduce stress on the then-teenage basketball phenom
after Ibaka left their poverty-stricken home to chase a pro hoops future in Europe. (Raine was conceived
with a girlfriend before he left, but not born until after.)Earlier in Ibaka's life, that same father had been
imprisoned without charges for two years as their long-tortured former Belgian colony erupted in
violence yet again. That absence helped send the future NBA star, whose mother had already passed
away, to the streets of Brazzaville, where he spent many nights sleeping on the ground or in cars, often
lacking for food and water.
All this and much more is revealed in Son of the Congo, which follows Ibaka on a trip home this past
summer to tell his incredible story of escaping poverty and violence in Congo to become an NBA
millionaire. The film is notable for a second reason, too, marking the first feature-length documentary
produced by Grantland, the acclaimed ESPN-owned site founded by star columnist Bill Simmons in
2011. The film is also a lifelong dream of Ibaka's.
Last year, a representative of Ibaka emailed Simmons' fan mailbag, which he doesn't check regularly,
proposing a documentary project with Grantland. Simmons happened to catch this message though,
and forwarded it along to David Jacoby, who manages much of the site's podcast and video content.
They determined the offer wasn't a prank, and got acclaimed documentary filmmaker Adam Hootnick
to direct. It would make a nice short, they all initially figured, not unlike previous Grantland productions.
But they quickly realized otherwise.
The production, which runs about an hour, represents new ground for Grantland, but also shouldn't
come as a total surprise. One of Hootnick's slickest film-making tricks in Son of the Congo is weaving
in a second sub-narrative that follows a basketball-obsessed teenage boy from Brazzaville during
Ibaka's trip home.
As powerful as seeing Ibaka visit family, speak Lingala and describe his own former hardship is,
watching a young boy live much like Ibaka once did gives his past an immediacy that otherwise wouldn't
exist. Like Ibaka did once upon time, the teenager plays on outdoor courts without shoes and struggles
to make it under extremely tough circumstances. But make no mistake, Ibaka is the star of this flick. His
trip home provides no shortage of impacting moments.
In one scene, we see him wrestle with how to address a gathering of people asking for money at his door
in Brazzaville. It's a tense situation full of aggression and poignancy at the same time. In another scene,
we see him at a hospital as he fits hearing aids on a young girl who then listens to her mother's voice for
the first time. In another, we see him glow with pride while driving past a billboard for The Ibaka Games,
a basketball showcase he founded in Brazzaville to help young hoops hopefuls there gain the attention
of foreign scouts.
Source: Mashable