Premiere Screening: Friday, January 23 @ 7:00pm – Grand Theatre – Salt Lake City

SYNOPSIS:

IN FOOTBALL WE TRUST captures a snapshot in time amid the rise of the Pacific Islander presence in the NFL. Polynesians are changing high school, college and professional football. To understand this phenomenon, one must appreciate the individuals and cultures behind the headlines, their unique diaspora to the united States and the role of the Mormon Church in facilitating their immigration.

IN FOOTBALL WE TRUST transports viewers deep inside the tightly-knit Polynesian community in Salt Lake City, Utah. With unprecedented access and shot over a four-year time period, this feature length documentary intimately portrays four young Polynesian men striving to overcome gang violence and near poverty through American football.

Despite a small population with a brief history in the U.S., Samoans and Tongans are 28 times more likely than any other minority group to play football for the famed NFL. Filmed over four years, filmmakers Tony Vainuku and Erika Cohn track the journeys of four talented Polynesian high school football players as they strive toward their lifelong, and potentially life-changing, goal of professional recruitment.

Charismatic, passionate, and determined, the players’ love of family is matched only by their love of this most American sport that seems to flow through their veins. Their speedy transformation from adolescence to adulthood in the high-stakes world of collegiate football is filmed with incredible access, shining a light on the extreme pressures to succeed that emanate from within the tightly knit Polynesian community, as well as from the outside.

Additional Screenings:

Tues, Jan 27 6:00 PM Egyptian Theatre – Park City

Sat, Jan 31 6:00 PM RedStone Cinema 7 – Park City

Please visit Sundance Film Page for more info