a feature-length documentary by Sara Newens & Mina T. Son
© Copyright 2011 Top Spin Movie Production - All Rights Reserved.
a feature-length documentary by Sara Newens & Mina T. Son
© Copyright 2011 Top Spin Movie Production - All Rights Reserved.
a feature-length ping pong documentary
The youngest-ever U.S. Men’s Champion in table tennis.
Ranked number 2 in the world in her age group.
The youngest-ever U.S. Women's Singles Champion.
Young table tennis titans begin the quest for Olympic glory in the ultimate underdog sport.
Top Spin is a feature-length documentary film by Sara Newens and Mina T. Son. The film is currently in production and slated to be completed in late 2012/early 2013.
About the film
Imagine the smell of fresh rubber paddles, hollow plastic balls whirling by at 80 mph, and exclamations of victory interrupted by bitter cries of defeat. Welcome to the world of competitive table tennis. Top Spin explores what is at stake for teen athletes striving for the Olympics and the families who support and sacrifice for them. But with no professional future for the sport in the U.S., in addition to the pressures of rigorous training, international tournaments, schoolwork and SAT’s — is it all worth it in the end?
Filmmakers
Sara Newens has been involved in film and television for over a decade, working primarily as a video editor for CBS News in New York City. Sara is a recent graduate of the M.F.A. Documentary Film and Video Program at Stanford University, where she was awarded a Princess Grace Foundation scholarship for her thesis film. Her film accomplishments include Student Academy Award Regional Finalist, Best Short Documentary at the San Diego Asian Film Festival, and a CINE Golden Eagle Award. Sara’s films have screened at many festivals including Sarasota, Starz Denver, Rooftop Summer Series, Lunafest, Mill Valley, Big Sky, BendFilm, and Cinequest. She has also worked for The Edit Center, Barefoot Workshops, and as an Assistant Producer for the award-winning PBS feature documentary New Year Baby.
Mina T. Son is an award-winning Korean American documentary filmmaker whose films have screened at several prestigious film festivals and museums including the National Gallery of Art, Margaret Mead, Traverse City, Mill Valley, and Cinequest. She is a two-time Student Academy Award Regional Finalist and her other awards include Best Short Documentary at the San Diego Asian Film Festival and a CINE Golden Eagle Award. A recent graduate of the M.F.A. Documentary Film and Video Program at Stanford University, Mina is a recipient of the 2010-11 College Art Association Professional-Development Fellowship in the Visual Arts.
Jamie Meltzer’s documentaries have been broadcast nationally on PBS and have screened at numerous film festivals worldwide. They include Off the Charts: The Song-Poem Story (Independent Lens, 2003), about the shadowy world of song-poems, and Welcome to Nollywood, an investigation into the wildly successful Nigerian movie industry (PBS broadcast, 2008). La Caminata, a recent short film about a small town in Mexico that puts on a simulated border crossing as a tourist attraction, screened at Silverdocs and True/False among others. Mr. Meltzer teaches in the Documentary Film and Video M.F.A. Program at Stanford University.
Please support Top Spin with a tax-deductible donation today!
1. To donate online, click here.
2. To mail in your donation, follow these instructions:
*Make checks out to San Francisco Film Society*Write the following in the memo line: Top Spin, FSP1386
*Send checks to:
San Francisco Film Society
ATTN: Finance Department
39 Mesa Street, Suite 110
The Presidio
San Francisco, CA 94129
To join our mailing list or for any other questions, please contact us at topspinmovie@gmail.com.