“In Football We Trust,” a film by Tony Vainuku and Erika Cohn, will be shown at the Mancos Public Library on Thursday, Jan. 28, followed by a question-and-answer session with Mancos High School football coaches.
The film, presented by the Independent Television Service (ITVS), Independent Lens, transports viewers deep inside the tightly knit and complex Polynesian community in Salt Lake City, one of the chief sources for the modern influx of Pacific Islander football players to the NFL.
Shot over a four-year period with intimate access, the film follows four young Polynesian men striving to overcome gang violence and poverty through the promise of American football. Despite overwhelming obstacles, Polynesians are 28 times more likely than any other ethnic group to make it in the NFL, a surprising statistic that the film opens with. Some refer to this phenomenon as a “calling” or a gift from God; others credit genetics, socio-cultural influences or stereotyping, or the push and pull of global sports capitalism.
Many Polynesian families view football as their ticket out of economic hardship and gang life, but “In Football We Trust” reveals those expectations to often be unrealistic and to place insurmountable pressure on these young players. In addition to the stories of the four young athletes, the film includes footage and interviews with current and former NFL players Troy Polamalu, Haloti Ngata, Star Lotulelei, and Vai Sikahema.
“In Football We Trust” premieres on Independent Lens on Monday, Jan. 25 on PBS.
Director Vainuku comes from a culture of third world traditions and a family of athletes. His first career aspirations began on the field as a budding professional football player from Salt Lake City. After high school, he spent some time in the corporate world before enrolling at Westminster College in Utah to study business marketing in order to launch businesses around his passions of directing, writing, and filmmaking. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in business marketing, Vainuku founded Soulprofile Productions, a multimedia company specializing in the creation of web ads, promotional video content and music production. In 2011, Vainuku founded and launched Soulpro, a lifestyle apparel brand built on the philosophy of Passion is Purpose®. In its three years of business, Soulpro has grown across the western United States and been actively involved in collaborating with and promoting hundreds of musicians, artists, athletes, and entrepreneurs.
Producer and co-director Cohn, a native Utahan, grew up attending the Sundance Film Festival. Although her films differ in place and time, religion and culture remain a recurring theme and her passion for social change the driving factor. In 2008, Cohn traveled to Cambodia, where she shot “Giant Steps,” a documentary about the reinstitution of art after Khmer Rouge rule, which aired on PBS. Cohn has received numerous accolades for her work, including a Directors Guild of America award for “When the Voices Fade,” a narrative profile of the Lebanese-Israeli war of 2006, and was recently admitted into the CPB Producers Academy. Cohn has been a featured panelist/speaker on independent film financing at film festivals and university conferences and mentors youth filmmakers across the globe. She attended Chapman University in California, where she graduated with degrees in film production and Middle Eastern Studies. Cohn is an avid documentary photographer, shooting primarily the lives of women in conflict zones, and serves as a US Ambassadorial Film Scholar to Israel.