How College Football Got Past Segregation with Director Maya Washington #LIFF2018

nsavides — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 23:06:20 +0000

My podcast coverage of Louisiana International Film Festival 2018 continues with director Maya Washington. She’s the filmmaker behind Through the Banks of the Red Cedar and the daughter of Gene Washington, the wide receiver who played for Michigan State and then the Minnesota Vikings and the Denver Broncos.

Gene’s storied football career led to an induction into the College Football Hall of Fame, two Pro Bowl appearances and one Super Bowl game. He was also one of 23 African Americans who were brought onto the Michigan State team in 1963 by Coach Duffy Daugherty. That was an unprecedented move in college football that helped to turn fully integrated football teams into the norm.

Some of the things that Maya and I discuss in our interview include

The way segregation affected college football and the transition past that
How her relationship with her dad became the emotional hook of her documentary
What making the documentary taught her about football and how it brought her closer to her dad
What it takes to include footage from NCAA College Football and NFL events in a documentary
How one considerate gesture from a competitor changed the life of Gene Washington, his family, and countless others.

My podcast interview for #LIFF2018 continues with filmmaker Maya Washington:

Maya will be attending LIFF 2018, so if you plan to attend then you can continue the conversation there.

Through the Banks of the Red Cedar will be playing at #LIFF2018 on Friday, April 20 at 6:45 PM and on Saturday, April 21 at 11:45 AM, and Maya will be participating in the filmmaker meet and greet on that Saturday, from 3:30 – 3:45 PM. Tickets are available through LIFF’s website.

Want to hear another interview about filming football? Then you might appreciate this podcast interview with Patrick Moreau, a co-founder of Stillmotion, a production company in Portland that has shot a couple of project for the NFL and has won an Emmy for a documentary they did about the Army-Navy college football game, Game of Honor