Dragoman Films

Meet Larry Baras, a middle-aged Jewish bakery owner from Boston, with no prior sports management experience, who sets out to create Israel's first professional baseball league.

With extraordinary access, HOLY LAND HARDBALL follows the unlikely formation of the Israel Baseball League, the first ever professional baseball circuit in the Middle East. In classic cinema-verite form, the film chronicles the highly unpredictable journey from the first player tryouts in Massachusetts in August 2006 through the league's scheduled first pitch in Israel in June 2007.

In its efforts to bring America's pastime to the Israeli people, the IBL opens the door to the dreams of 120 very diverse ballplayers. Among them, a 41-year-old father of three with a Peter Pan complex and a wife struggling with her husband's obsession with the game; a 27-year-old aspiring writer/artist/musician still finding himself after the disappointment of not being drafted out of college; a 34-year-old father-to-be whose own father, now deceased, fought for Israel's independence in 1948; and a 22-year-old African-American who was told by a preacher at a young age he would one day "play in front of God's people."

In order to pull off this daring quest, Baras and his recruits have the challenging task of drawing the Israeli people to the entirely unfamiliar and confusing game of baseball after 5,767 years without the sport. Add a skeptical Israeli media, disgruntled players, delayed stadium preparations, customs snafus, and a rapidly approaching Opening Day and the question Baras is left with is: If I build it, will they come?

Caryn Monis, HARTFORD COURANT

"Award-Winning 'Holy Land Hardball' Filled with Optimism and Heart."

Eddie Cockrell, VARIETY

"You don't have to be Jewish or understand a box score to embrace the crowd-pleasing national-pastime docu "Holy Land Hardball."

Stina Chyn, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

"Old forms were broken down and recombined into something original in Brett Rapkin and Erik Kesten's 'Holy Land Hardball,' about a grandiose effort to form a pro baseball league in the Middle East, which blended a rigorous investigation into organizational ineptitude with the aspirational charm of 'Hoop Dreams.'"

Festivals: 

Rochester Jewish Film Festival - July 2008
Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival - December 2008
Boston Jewish Film Festival - November2008
Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival - December 2008
Atlanta Jewish Film Festival - January 2009
Miami Jewish Film Festival - January 2009
Denver Jewish Film Festival - February 2009
Toronto Jewish Film Festival - April 2009
Jacob Burns Film Center Film Festival - March 2009
Pittsburgh Jewish - Israeli Film Festival - March 2009
LA Jewish Film Festival - April 2009
Seattle Jewish Film Festival - April 2009
Sid Jacobson Jewish Community Center Film Festival - July 2009

Awards:

Audience Award, Best Documentary, 2008 Boston Jewish Film Festival