SAN FRANCISCO — In over 30 years of filmmaking, Nelson George has been to quite a lot of film premieres.
However Sunday night time’s superior screening of the documentary “Say Hey, Willie Mays!” on the Castro Theatre in San Francisco was one in every of a sort.
“This was very totally different — this was like a house crew screening,” mentioned George, the movie’s director. “There are laughs and perception and emotion that you simply’re not going to get elsewhere. We screened it in New York and it was fantastic, nevertheless it wasn’t the identical as being within the ballpark.”
There was a ballpark really feel to the 100-year-old theater on Sunday night time for the West Coast premiere of the documentary in regards to the Giants legend, which debuts on HBO and HBO Max Tuesday night time.
The a whole bunch of Giants followers who have been invited hooted and hollered all through the exhibiting and on the panel beforehand. And whereas the 91-year-old Mays was not in attendance on Sunday night time, the group was delighted when a shock visitor got here on stage: Mays’ godson, Barry Bonds.
I’m on the West Coast premiere of HBO’s Willie Mays documentary on the Castro Theatre.
Panel dialogue forward of time, with a shock addition to the stage: Barry Bonds. pic.twitter.com/1KxVxOoUMU— Alex Simon (@AlexSimonSports) November 7, 2022
Bonds joined George, Giants broadcaster Jon Miller, public tackle announcer Renel Brooks-Moon and Mays biographer and San Francisco Chronicle author John Shea for the pre-viewing panel and beamed about his godfather and idol, who he’s sometimes called his “second father.”
Additionally in attendance was Corridor of Famer Orlando Cepeda, Mays’ son Michael, two former Mayors of San Francisco, Frank Jordan and Willie Brown, former Giants gamers Mike Felder, Terry Whitfield and Nate Oliver, and Colin Hanks, who was a producer on the movie. Seemingly each member of the Giants’ entrance workplace was within the constructing, together with new basic supervisor Pete Putila — whose introduction led one fan to audibly yell out, “Signal Aaron Decide.”
However the night time and the movie have been actually about San Francisco’s first baseball star, which felt becoming to the longtime Giants clubhouse supervisor Mike Murphy, who’s labored for the Giants from the second Mays and his teammates arrived out West in 1958.
“It couldn’t have occurred to a greater particular person,” Murphy mentioned, including that he just lately went to go to Mays at his dwelling to debate old-time ballplayers and Frank Sinatra.
After an preliminary begin with a few of Mays’ high highlights from the again half of his profession, the documentary weaves Mays’ story chronologically, paced to maintain issues shifting however paint a full image of every step alongside the way in which. There are interviews with Bonds, Cepeda, Juan Marichal, Reggie Jackson, Dusty Baker and extra folks from in and round baseball.
George interviewed Mays in his dwelling for the movie and makes use of that all through (one tip: stick round throughout the tip credit), but additionally makes use of over a dozen totally different factors of archival footage of Mays talking, going again as early because the Fifties. And there may be clearly loads of baseball footage, too.
However Mays’ life exterior of the foul strains can also be explored, even when there are some sensitive topics. The half that can certainly elevate eyebrows to these unaware is that, because the Giants have been shifting to San Francisco forward of the 1958 season, Mays was initially prevented from buying a home as a result of he was Black.
“No story that’s of an actual heroic journey is a straight line of victory,” George mentioned of the selection to dive into the housing challenge. “His skill to beat that and to not let hate fill his coronary heart in any respect, I feel that’s actually vital. That’s who he's. His skill to proceed ahead and to like San Francisco and never be turned off by that and to not internalize that round everybody within the metropolis.”
The documentary additionally touched on criticism Mays acquired from the Black neighborhood, and particularly Jackie Robinson, of how Mays didn’t converse up for the civil rights motion. Mays’ response to Robinson is each proven on the display and browse aloud, and he's defended by a number of within the movie, most notably Bonds.
The 90-minute run time means some components of Mays’ life have been ignored, like how Mays was as soon as banned from baseball as a result of he took a job as a greeter for an Atlantic Metropolis on line casino. However in becoming with the theme of mentorship — each that includes Mays because the receiver initially, and later because the mentor — the movie concludes with Bonds’ relationship together with his godfather and the way Mays helped carry Bonds again to San Francisco in 1993 and push to interrupt the all-time dwelling run document.
Bonds mentioned that Mays continues to push to be a mentor and educate youthful gamers about baseball, even including that Mays is already attempting to persuade these near him to let him go to Arizona for spring coaching subsequent yr.
“It’s all the time, ‘Boy, what are you instructing these guys?’ I inform him, ‘Willie, the sport’s modified. They’re on a pc,’” Bonds mentioned, incomes laughs from the group. “Willie tells me, ‘I don’t care, it’s your job. It’s your responsibility.’ It’s our job, it’s our responsibility, to coach our subsequent technology.”
That relationship between godfather and godson is as sturdy as ever at the moment. Bonds briefly confirmed the group a photograph of Mays at dwelling, watching the documentary, which Bonds mentioned he’s been doing “time and again.”
After admitting that exhibiting the group that photograph may make Mays mad, Bonds requested the group to do one thing for #24: yell ‘Say Hey, Willie’ all collectively.
When the group did so in booming trend, Bonds joined them, figuring out it could be the kind of factor that will carry pleasure to Mays — the identical form of pleasure Mays delivered to so many through the years.