Director Kevin Shaw and Players of Jackie Robinson West Look Back on Controversial 2014 Championship | EUR Exclusive
*More than a decade after the Jackie Robinson West controversy dominated headlines that never quite got it right, the players at the center of it are finally getting their say. “One Golden Summer,” the award-winning documentary directed by Kevin Shaw, premiered as an OWN Spotlight May 7 on the OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. The film […] The post Director Kevin Shaw and Players of Jackie Robinson West Look Back on Controversial 2014 Championship | EUR Exclusive appeared first on EURweb | Black News, Culture, Entertainment & More.
Black News 
*More than a decade after the Jackie Robinson West controversy dominated headlines that never quite got it right, the players at the center of it are finally getting their say.
“One Golden Summer,” the award-winning documentary directed by Kevin Shaw, premiered as an OWN Spotlight May 7 on the OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. The film chronicles the extraordinary 2014 run of an all-Black Little League team from Chicago’s South Side that captured the nation’s attention by becoming the first all-Black team to win the U.S. Little League Championship — and the devastating aftermath when Little League International stripped the title over a residency dispute.
Shaw, whose previous credits include the Emmy and Peabody-nominated documentary “Let the Little Light Shine,” was deliberate about the timing. “It had been about 10, 11 years since the events of the Little League World Series involving Jackie Robinson West had transpired,” he said. “They never really spoke about what had transpired from their point of view. This was a great opportunity for them to share their side of the story.”
What Shaw also wanted to correct was the media’s original framing of the team and their families. “The media tried to put a rags to riches kind of a moniker on the guys and the families and really didn’t do their research,” he said. “These guys didn’t come from poor neighborhoods. They came from middle-class backgrounds, two-parent family homes. That doesn’t always get told when we’re telling stories from our experiences as Black people in this country.”
For player DJ Butler, memories from that summer still feel close. “The whole journey from districts all the way to the parade and the White House — I remember all those moments vividly,” he said. “Winning regional and going down to the World Series, winning the World Series, and being able to just experience everything with my brothers. That’s something I’ll never forget.”
When the title was stripped, the fallout hit fast and hard. Butler recalled waking up to news cameras camped outside his home, unable to attend school for days. “It was kind of like paparazzi in the negative way,” he said. “You’re 12, 13 years old, and you gotta grow up right away — or you just gonna sink. I had to force myself to have tough skin and be able to look at the world from a different perspective than a regular adolescent teen.”
Teammate Tre Hondras echoed that weight, describing the surreal experience of being publicly attacked at 12 years old. “We were getting criticized for just playing baseball as 12-year-old kids,” he said. “We got tangled up in grown folks’ business. But it ended up being positive personally for me because now there’s nothing else you can really throw at me that I can’t take.”
Shaw said the central message he wants audiences to walk away with is simple but powerful. “These guys received criticism at such a young age and that’s something no adolescent should go through,” he said. “They didn’t let this thing derail their life. They didn’t let it define who they are. Despite the adversity, they rose above it and didn’t let it kill their dreams.”
Following its decorated debut at the Chicago International Film Festival, where it earned both the Chicago Award and the Audience Award for Best Documentary, “One Golden Summer” arrives as more than a sports story. It is a film about brotherhood, resilience, and what it means to reclaim your own narrative. Producer Bob Teitel put it plainly: “These young men deserve to finally have their voices heard.”
Watch our conversation with Kevin, DJ, and Tre below.
“One Golden Summer” is now streaming on HBO Max.
MORE NEWS ON EURWEB.COM: ‘One Golden Summer’ Documentary Revisits Chicago Team’s Controversial Title Loss | VIDEO
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The post Director Kevin Shaw and Players of Jackie Robinson West Look Back on Controversial 2014 Championship | EUR Exclusive appeared first on EURweb | Black News, Culture, Entertainment & More.
