I Made a Documentary! (& you can see it at 2 Film Festivals)
Tuesbetter Newsletter #109
Happy Tuesday on a Wednesday!
I know this is a day late, but we should all be trying to keep Tuesday in our hearts at all times anyway.
Guess what? I made a documentary!
(You totally should’ve guessed that based on the title. But then again, I often go off-topic, so I won’t blame you. I might blame you a little.)
It’s called No Packers, No Life
Yeah, I may have already told you I made a documentary, but now it’s showing at two film festivals in a couple of weeks!
📽️ Wisconsin Film Festival
📍 April 6th at 4:30 PM at The Barrymore
📽️ Green Bay Film Festival
📍 April 12th – They tell me it’s showing around 7 PM
Why did I make a documentary about Japanese Green Bay Packer fans?
Well… I have a friend named Ty (no, not Ty the Regular Guy), who grew up in Wisconsin and travels to Japan every few months.
On one trip, he saw a Japanese man wearing a Packers jersey. He went up to talk to him, and suddenly, 20 other Japanese people wearing Packers jerseys appeared.
That’s when he discovered the Japanese Packers Cheering Team. They periodically get together to watch recordings of past Packer games. They LOOOOVE the Packers.
So, Ty decided to fly them to Green Bay for a Packers game and document the experience.
How did I get involved?
Initially, I wasn’t part of this project. After sitting on the footage for a while, Ty finally asked me to make it into a documentary.
I said no.
The project intrigued me, but I was TOO BUSY!
He asked again. I said no.
He asked a bunch of times and then offered me a trip to Japan. I said yes.
And let me tell you… I had an amazing week in Japan and got a lot of great interviews.
The Editing Process (a.k.a. Agony & Growth)
Then… I sat on the footage. For a long time.
I worked on it periodically, familiarizing myself with the footage, organizing it into different timelines based on themes. I started piecing it together, scrapped it, and started again… multiple times.
It was stressful. Agonizing. For years.
The Packers trip happened in 2018.
Finally, I decided to quit making YouTube videos for four months to focus entirely on this project.
I took everything I had learned about the footage and started from scratch.
I told myself, "I’ll add 2 minutes to the timeline every day."
And I pretty much did that. Some days, even more.
And the most surprising thing? I enjoyed it.
I loved the meticulous building of the timeline, seeing the story grow, watching it all come together.
And now… it’s DONE!
What I have is a fun, heartfelt story about how people across the world can share a passion… and also party a lot.
It’s not widely available yet. I’m not sure where it’ll end up living, but for now, you can see it at these festivals!
📽️ Wisconsin Film Festival
📍 April 6th at 4:30 PM at The Barrymore
📽️ Green Bay Film Festival
📍 April 12th – Around 7 PM
Oh, and I was on local PBS talking about it!
Wing (ding),
Craig
Congrats on finishing the doc! I've never really into sports, nor do I really get it, and the same applies to music theory, engineering, world history, and a myriad of other things I didn't learn or pay attention in school. But what I do get is people's passion and enthusiasm for things I don't really understand, and that always what draws me in in the end. Hoping for a big release!
Congrats. And best wishes for its success at film festivals. Thanks for sharing your process. It showed me how something one really wants to do can still be so hard to do.