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Producer and director of baseball film ‘Rally Caps’ to attend special showing in Fairfield
FAIRFIELD – The Fairfield Arts & Convention Center has hit a homerun with the entertainment it has lined up for Labor Day weekend.
The arts center will show a couple of baseball movies that weekend, one of which is a classic and the other a newer release. The classic is “Field of Dreams,” and the new release is “Rally Caps,” a film about a Little League team where the pitcher and catcher both have to overcome their unique challenges.
Locals are in for a treat because the producer and the director of Rally Caps will attend the Fairfield premiere at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 30, and answer questions from the audience afterward. The film was producer by Katherine Borda, and directed and written by her husband, Lee Cipolla.
While the couple is in Iowa, they will attend a special screening of their film at the Field of Dreams movie set in Dyersville, Iowa. Back in Fairfield, the arts center will be showing both films on Saturday, Aug. 31 with Rally Caps at 2 p.m. and Field of Dreams at 7 p.m. The arts center will show Field of Dreams again at 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 1.
Cipolla said he and his wife are excited to visit Fairfield and talk to locals about their film. Their Q and A session will be moderated by a member of the David Lynch Screenwriting Program at Maharishi International University. Cipolla said he’s also looking forward to the special screening in Dyersville, since one of the scenes of the movie was shot at the Field of Dreams ball diamond.
Cipolla grew up in upstate New York, and he said he was a huge fan of the 1989 film Field of Dreams starring Kevin Costner.
“In my childhood years, I thought of Iowa as heaven because of Field of Dreams,” said Cipolla, referencing a famous line from the movie.
Rally Caps the film is based on a book by the same name by Jodi Cutler Del Dottore and Stephen Cutler. The authors mailed a copy of the book to Cipolla in 2008, and while he liked the idea of doing a family baseball movie, he knew they were expensive to make, so held off on adapting the book into a film.
Cipolla wanted to make a baseball movie with a fresh perspective, one that centered on the relationship between the child actors and one dealing with how children overcome anxiety.
According to the film’s website, Rally Caps “focuses on a young boy named Jordy who overcomes a serious injury he experiences during a Little League baseball tryout. Jordy goes to summer camp and he is inspired to come back to the mound when he forms a friendship with a deaf boy named Lucas. Lucas plays catcher and is facing his own crises of just having Cochlear Implant surgery. Together, they form a special bond as friends and pitcher/catcher duo, and lead their team in the camp championship game.”
The pitcher, Jordy, is played by Carson Minniear, who has also performed on an Apple TV show called “Palmer.” Cipolla said Minniear is a polished actor even at a young age, and that he is “very mature beyond his years.” The catcher, Colten Pride, is deaf in real life, and he is also the son of former Major League Baseball player Curtis Pride, who is also deaf and makes a cameo in the film.
Cipolla said casting Lucas’s part was difficult because he needed to find a child actor who was deaf and who could play baseball. He also felt strongly that a deaf actor should play the part of Lucas, instead of one pretending to be deaf.
“Authenticity is really important,” Cipolla said. “As a consumer, too, something that always bothered me was when you could tell someone who as pretending to be blind. It feels awkward.”
The film also stars well-known actors such as Judd Hirsch and Amy Smart. Hirsch became famous for his role on the TV show “Taxi,” and has gone on to perform in many films including Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans.” Smart’s film career includes hits such as “Varsity Blues,” “Road Trip” and “The Butterfly Effect.”
For more information on the film, visit rallycapsthemovie.com. For information about the arts center’s upcoming programs, visit fairfieldacc.com.
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
