#9-man

Montreal NACIVT (II)

September 2018

9-Man: a Streetball Battle in the Heart of Chinatown

Happy birthday to filmmaker Ursula Liang whose documentary 9-Man has been making the festival rounds this spring, including capturing an audience award at the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival.

A streetball battle in Chinatown.

Nine man might be the greatest sport you never knew existed. A volleyball hybrid invented in Chinatown in the 1930s, the game has fostered an increasingly athletic and competititve following in Chinese communities across North America, while remaining unknown in the wider world of sports.

Now filmmaker and sports journalist Ursula Liang is working on a film that will share the story of 9-man, from its roots in a time of intense discrimination to its growth among young men who've known a very different America.

Team

September 2012

There were two clinchers. The first is that she digs Thrice ("Oh my god I have such a boner for that band. Who wants to go?"). The second is a remark she said to a Williamsburgian: "Dude, I don't fucking do Greenpoint, okay?"

It was her -- in the red-and-black plaid shirt, the black tights, the boots, with the ponytail and the tomboyish smile.

What do you do when you have a follower pegged at a party before having been introduced in person? No, you do not bring it up. Instead, you make a game out of it. You could, for example, write three paragraphs about her -- and then let her read them.

So why was I back in Chelsea, anyway? 

For the recording session, you might say. Let the tape run and listen to the Texan explain the difference between Corpus Christi and Manhattan, the copywriter recall the trivia-night question he couldn't answer on Tuesday (name the U.S. state whose name contains four consecutive consonants), and the ex-Bayers engage in a heated round of which-celebrity-have-you-seen-in-NYC-lately (Meg Ryan trumps Don Cheadle but not Julianne Moore).

The people in this room make interesting stuff. The Laughing Squid guy is here. So is the director of 9-Man and the designer of the TORI limited-edition Lomography camera. The editors of a hyphenated magazine are mingling by the bar. 

Someone turns to me and asks, "So what do you do?"

"I brought dessert," is the reply. "It's over there."

"Um...okay, thanks."

A less evasive answer to this question is that I simply remember things, whether it's the sequence of people who have stepped out onto the balcony for a smoke, or the way the book review editor (in blue) is admiring her (green) macaroon.

"You should write for us," she tells me.