Review of Linsanity (2013) by Michele V — 14 Apr 2013

Linsanity a documentary film about Jeremy Shu-How Lin, premiered in January 2013, at the Sundance Film Festival. Director Evan Jackson Leong was working for MTV news when he pitched a project to make a film about the "evolution" of how Lin, an Asian-American basketball player, dealt with career challenges and racism.

Leong took vacation days to travel and follow Lin over many years from Palo Alto, to Harvard and finally to Houston. The documentary began simply as an immigrant sport story tracking an unknown basketball player; but the filmmaker was blessed because overtime he gained exclusive access to Linn, an Evangelical Christian, who became a worldwide celebrated basketball player for the NBA.

At the beginning, Leong and his crew "...were just making a bunch of six to eight minute long webisodes - something we could put up on YouTube for his fans," said the director. "We thought we'd just cover different moments of his life: His childhood, his play during high school, in college, in the NBA, and so on," Leong explained. "What I really wanted to try and do and show on this documentary was the evolution of how he (Lin) dealt with that, (racism) because it was new to us, but he's been dealing with that his whole life," said Leong.

The producers and directors had "dozen of meetings" before Linn agreed to get in front of the camera although he had made several videos. Lin created the Jubilee Project, which creates videos that tell stories about helping one another and achieving one's potential. Producer Christopher C. Chen has been involved in various projects including one that have made the Oscar-award nomination list for Best Documentary Feature; and producer Brian Yang is an established actor. The film is narrated by Daniel Dae Kim; and the film's title Linsanity, got its name from a cry, which began when Lin was taken off the bench, by coach Mike D'Antoni, propelling the New York Knicks to a seven-game winning streak. "It's Lin-sanity! Knicks score win over Nets" read the headline on Frank Isola's report for the New York Daily News.

During the filming Leong quoted Alfred Hitchcock by saying: "In narrative films, the director is God. In documentaries, God is the director." You don't plan anything, it just happens." What happen in Linsanity is a documentary that revels dedication, faith, passion and self-confidence. It is an inspiring documentary for everyone to see even if you know nothing about sports.