by Nathan Southern
synopsis
In the inspirational two-hour documentary Gridiron Gang, director/co-producer Lee Stanley (Desperate Passage) undertakes an ambitious, and enormously successful, social experiment. Stanley and Coach Sean Porter pull 35 underage convicts (primarily gang members) from Camp Vernon Kilpatrick, a maximum-security juvenile prison in the Malibu area, and shape them into a football team, teaching them -- in the process -- about coordination, cooperation, sharing, working together as a team, and the ethics of good gamesmanship. Stanley's film documents the transformation process, which yields full rehabilitation for the convicts (all of the individuals end up being released, with only five shuttled back to detention) and 35 talented players.
