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| Born: September 29, 1912. Ferrara, Italy | Bats-LEFT Throws-RIGHT | ||
 | Michaelangelo Antonioni | Blow Up (1966) | Thirdbase |
| A pioneer in the Italian neo-realist film movement. Antonioni attended and graduated the University of Bologna where he studied economics. Antonioni's adaptation of Julio Cortazar's 1959 short story Blow Up is a taut study of what's real and what is not. It also examines the relationship between the main character and the film's director. | |||
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| Born:July 14, 1918. Uppsala, Sweden | Bats-RIGHT Throws-RIGHT | ||
 | Ingmar Bergman | Wild Strawberries (1957) | Infield |
| Bergman studied literature and art history at the University of Stockholm. His films are notable for their concern with spiritual and psychological themes. His films have sometimes been assigned to the so-called "chamber" cinema genre that emphasizes metaphor. Bergman films constantly focus and dwell on images of the face and hands. | |||
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| Born: 1953. Wellington, New Zealand | Bats-RIGHT Throws-RIGHT | ||
 | Jane Campion | The Piano (1993) | Pitcher |
| Despite being born in New Zealand Campion is associated with Australian post-New Wave filmmaking. She received a degree in anthropology from Victoria University and then attended Australia's National Film School. She is the first woman to win the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival. | |||
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| Born: August 2, 1939. Cleveland, Ohio. | Bats-RIGHT Throws-RIGHT | ||
 | Wes Craven | Swamp Thing (1982) | Leftfield |
| A former professor of humanities, Craven did his undergraduate work at Wheaton College and received a Masters degree in writing and philosophy from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. His genre is the horror film. | |||
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| Born: January 20, 1920. Rimini, Italy Died: October 31, 1993. Rome, Italy | Bats-RIGHT Throws-RIGHT | ||
 | Frederico Fellini | I Vitteloni (1953) | Shortstop |
| Educated in Catholic institutions Fellini had early jobs as a crime reporter and caricature artist. He was an important member of the Italian Neo-realist movement. | |||
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| Born: February 1, 1895 Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Died: August 31, 1973. | Bats-RIGHT Throws-RIGHT | ||
 | John Ford | Grapes of Wrath (1940) | Rightfield |
| Born Sean Aloysius O'Feeney. Ford went to join his brother in Hollywood after completing high school. He got work as a set-laborer and assistant. His first directing efforts were made during the silent film era. His notable work included morality tales in the Western genre although he made a number of films that were not Westerns. | |||
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| Born: February 18, 1932. Caslav, Czechoslovakia | Bats-RIGHT Throws-RIGHT | ||
 | Milos Forman | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) | Centerfield |
| Studied in Prague at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. A dark and ironic visionary influenced by the death of his parents at Auschwitz during World War II. | |||
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| Born: December 3, 1930. Paris, France | Bats-RIGHT Throws-RIGHT | ||
 | Jean-Luc Godard | Weekend (1967) | Pitcher |
| Attended the Sorbonne where he studied ethnology. Godard was a major force in the French New Wave film movement. His films became increasingly motivated by his radical political outlook. | |||
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| Born: August 13, 1899. London, England | Bats-RIGHT Throws-RIGHT | ||
 | Alfred Hitchcock | Marnie (1964) | Pitcher |
| Raised in a strict Catholic household, Hitchcock was educated by the Jesuits at St. Ignatius College in England. His career in film began when he took a job as a title designer for the Lasky Film Company when it opened up an office in London. He went on to become a master director in the suspense film genre. | |||
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| Born: July 26, 1898. New York, New York Died: March 7, 1999 | Bats-RIGHT Throws-RIGHT | ||
 | Stanley Kubrick | Clockwork Orange (1971) | Firstbase |
| At age 17 Kubrick became an apprentice photographer for Look Magazine. He eventually went to Hollywood to pursue a career in filmmaking. After several years he moved to England where he spent the rest of his life making films. | |||
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| Born: March 23, 1910. Tokyo, Japan. Died: September 6, 1998. Tokyo, Japan. | Bats-RIGHT Throws-RIGHT | ||
 | Akira Kurosawa | Rashomon (1950) | Catcher |
| Trained as a painter, Kurosawa entered Japan's film industry in 1936. Always more popular and respected in the United States than in his native Japan he made visionary adaptations of works by prominent Western authors such as Shakespeare. | |||
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| Born: December 5, 1890. Berlin, Germany. Died: Novemver 30, 1947. Los Angeles, California. | Bats-RIGHT Throws-RIGHT | ||
 | Fritz Lang | Metropolis 1927 | Outfield |
| Trained as a painter Lang came to the United States in 1934 after having worked as a story editor, screenwriter and actor within the German film industry. In Hollywood he developed a reputation among actors for being difficult to work with, some claimed he was abusive to actors. In reference to the then new film technology known as "CinemaScope" Lang said, "It's only good for funerals and snakes." | |||
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| Born: January 28, 1892. Berlin, Germany. Died: November 30, 1947. | Bats-RIGHT Throws-RIGHT | ||
 | Ernst Lubitsch | Ninotchka 1939 | Infield |
| He began his acting and directing career in Germany but left for Hollywood in 1922. In 1935 the Nazi regime revoked his German citizenship. | |||
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| Born: June 25, 1924. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. | Bats-RIGHT Throws-RIGHT | ||
 | Sidney Lumet | The Pawnbroker (1965) | Infield |
| The son of theatrical parents Lumet began his acting career on the stage of the Yiddish Art Theater in New York at the age of four. He began his directing career in the 1950s and his films frequently tackled social issues from a leftist political world view. | |||
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| Born: April 7, 1928. The Bronx, New York. Died: November 19, 1998. Long Island, New York | Bats-RIGHT Throws-RIGHT | ||
 | Alan Pakula | To Kill a Mockingbird (1962 | Pitcher |
| Son of a Polish-Jewish immigrant in the printing business, Pakula attended Yale University. After graduating from college he began his pursuit of a career in film production and direction. | |||
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| Born: May 8, 1906. Rome, Italy. Died: June 3, 1977. | Bats-RIGHT Throws-RIGHT | ||
 | Roberto Rossellini | The Betrayer (1961) | Secondbase |
| As a boy Rossellini preferred films to opera, theater and music. Because his father had built it, Roberto had a free pass to the Corso Cinema that was Rome's first modern movie house. He saw movies practically everyday. Later on he would remark, "So I saw it born, the cinema, I saw [D.W.] Griffith born. | |||
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| Born: January 6, 1968. Los Angeles, California. | Bats-RIGHT Throws-RIGHT | ||
 | John Singleton | Boyz N the Hood (1991) | Outfield |
| Graduated from the University of Southern California's Filmic Writing Program in 1990. His first film, Boyz in the Hood received an Academy Award nomination for best director making Singleton the youngest person to be nominated in the directing category. | |||
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| Born: August 2, 1970. New Jersey. | Bats-RIGHT Throws-RIGHT | ||
 | Kevin Smith | Clerks (1994) | Pitcher |
| Graduated from the Henry Hudson Regional High School in Highlands, New Jersey. Smith sold his comic book collection to finance his film Clerks. (He would eventually buy back the collection.) On May 7, 2000 Illinois Wesleyan University awarded Smith an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. | |||
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| Born: 1946 | Bats-RIGHT Throws-RIGHT | ||
 | Penelope Spheeris | Decline of Western Civilization (1981) | Pitcher |
| Spheeris's filmmaking career has followed different tracks: small independent features about youthful disillusionment and alienation such as the Decline trilogy, Suburbia (1983) The Boys Next Door (1986) and Dudes (1987) and major Hollywood studio comedies like Wayne's World (1992) and Senseless. (1998). | |||
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| Born: February 6, 1932. Paris, France Died: October 21, 1984. | Bats-RIGHT Throws-RIGHT | ||
 | Francois Truffaut | L'Enfant Sauvage (1968) | Pitcher |
| Truffaut left school at the age of 14 and at 15 he founded a film club in Paris. A prime force behind the emergence of the French New Wave he was also an articulate writer and spokesman for the so-called "auteur theory" of filmmaking. He began directing films in 1954. His work was frequently focused on themes involving passion, women, childhood and faithfulness. | |||
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| Born: August 21, 1932. Chicago, Illinois. | Bats-RIGHT Throws-RIGHT | ||
 | Melvin Van Peebles | Sweet Sweetback's Badasssss Song (1971) | Pitcher |
| After graduating from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1953 Van Peebles was a flight navigator in the U.S. Air Force. After his service in the Air Force he lived in Europe for a number of years. When he returned to the United States he made his first film, Watermelon Man (1969). The success of his next film, Sweet Sweetback's Badasssss Song opened the doors for African-American film directors, camera operators and editors. | |||
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| Born: April 29, 1946. Baltimore, Maryland. | Bats-RIGHT Throws-RIGHT | ||
 | John Waters | Pink Flamingos (1972) | Pitcher |
| Waters began making 8mm and 16mm films in the 1960s with his band of counter-cultural friends in Baltimore. His films are notable for their constant obsession with violence and gore. | |||
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| Team Staff & Management | |||
| Born: May 6, 1915. Kenosha, Wisconsin. Died: October 10, 1985. | |||
 | Orson Welles | A Touch of Evil (1958) | Field Manager |
| Welles made his acting debut in 1934. His first film, Citizen Kane was released in 1941 and despite doing poorly at the box office has become one of the most critically acclaimed American films of all time. Touch of Evil another box office failure, won a prize at the 1958 Brussels World Fair. | |||
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| Born: August 14, 1945. | |||
 | Wim Wenders | The American Friend (1977) | Coach |
| An exemplar of the new wave of German filmmakers Wenders has said, "Sex and violence was never really my cup of tea; I was always more into sax and violins." | |||
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| Born: August 14, 1928. Rome, Italy. | |||
 | Lina Wertmuller | Swept Away (1975) | General Manager |
| The daughter of an aristocratic Swiss family, Wertmuller originally wanted to be a lawyer. However in 1947 she attended the Academy Theater in Rome. She started working on films in 1962 as an assistant to Frederico Fellini. Her 1976 film Seven Beauties earned her an Academy Award nomination for "Best Director" -- the first woman ever nominated in the category. | |||
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| Born: December 8, 1861. Paris, France. Died: January 21, 1938. Paris, France. | |||
 | Georges Melies | A Trip to the Moon (1902) | Team Owner |
| The Internet Movie Database lists over 500 films made by Melies. He was a professional magician who saw his first film in 1895. Melies was the first to use fade-in, fade-outs and dissolves as well as stop-motion effects in his films. He is the father of the narrative film. | |||
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The FRAMEMAKERS are a new cosmic team. |
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