UCLA Center X joins with Pasadena City College to screen “Going for Home,” the story of the Altadena Central Little League in the aftermath of the Easton Canyon Fire.
If you talk with a baseball coach, they may tell you that baseball is a game of failure. But it is also a game of hope and possibility, of courage and resilience, even redemption. As the famed Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter once said, “Baseball is a metaphor for life.”
In the aftermath of Eaton Canyon fire last year that destroyed more than 4,000 homes and left untold tragedy in its wake, independent film makers Eric Simonson and Sue Cremin embraced that metaphor, turning their lens on the players and families of the Central Altadena Little League, who amid burnt ball fields, lost homes and devastation across their community, were desperate for just a little normalcy – desperate for a baseball season.
Their camera followed the players and families across a season filled with challenges, culminating in an improbable and inspiring ending. The work grew into the feature documentary, “Going for Home,” telling the story of a community searching for hope and stability after losing nearly everything—and finding it unexpectedly, on a Little League baseball field.
“I feel like the great surprise of the film is that there’s joy, and the lesson, at least, for me, is that there’s a way to fight for joy,” said Cremin. “A lot of our reason for doing it was that the Palisades fire was getting a lot of attention. And we just wanted to get the word out about what was happening with the fire in Altadena a little bit more.”
That’s where the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies got involved. The motto of the University of California is “Fiat Lux” – let there be light. On Saturday, March 14, UCLA Ed & IS teamed with Pasadena City College (PCC) to shine a little light on the resilience of the players and families and wider Altadena community, hosting a screening of “Coming for Home,” at the Westerbeck Recital Hall on the PCC campus. It was the first screening of the film seen by the players and families from the Altadena Central Little League. The place was packed.
Led by Lynn Kim-John, director of UCLA Center X and Annamarie Francois, director of public engagement at UCLA Ed & IS, UCLA brought plenty of Bruin spirit and tee-shirts, baseball caps and other swag to share with players and families.
Kim-John is a neighbor of the filmmakers and when she learned they wanted to share the film with the community, she wanted to help. UCLA Ed & IS and Center X have a partnership with PCC and Kim-John was able to reach out to the colleges’ leadership for help in hosting the event in a site that was accessible to the families and players in the Altadena Central lLttle League.
“As community colleges and as a public university, I really believe we need to be centering our efforts to serve communities in need,” said Kim-John. “And at this moment in time, Altadena is a community in need. Doing these small things, I think, in a way to uplift their story, is really important. We have a lot to learn from folks that are navigating really hard times.”
More information about the film, “Going for Home,” can be found at https://goingforhomefilm.com