On February 10, the DGA Chicago Coordinating Committee, in association with the Columbia College Chicago Film & Video Department, hosted a special screening of the documentary Head Games. The screening took place at Columbia College’s Film Row Cinema facility and was followed by a Q&A and reception with the film’s director Steve James.
Inspired by the book written by former Ivy League football star and WWE wrestler Christopher Nowinski, Head Games asks the question “How much of you are you willing to lose for a game?” The film seeks to uncover the truth about the consequences of sports-related head injuries and reveals some of the tragic stories from football, hockey and soccer that have now been determined to be due to concussions. Head Games also examines the relevant science on brain trauma and offers advice on how to better deal with concussions at all levels of sports.
Following the screening, film’s director Steve James sat down with 1998 DGA Documentary Award winning Director Gordon Quinn (Vietnam: Long Time Coming) for a discussion about the making of Head Games before joining the DGA members and guests for a reception.
Steve James began his career as a documentary filmmaker with Stop Substance Abuse in 1986. His other works include the feature film Prefontaine (1994), the movies for television Passing Glory (1999) and Joe and Max (2002), and the documentaries Stevie (2002) and Reel Paradise (2005). His 1994 film Hoop Dreams won him the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary and was also nominated for an Academy Award. James also earned DGA Award nominations for his documentaries The Interrupters (2011) and At The Death House Door (2008, co-directed with Peter Gilbert).
James has been a DGA member since 1995.