At AFI DOCS, I caught up with Judd Apatow, co-director of the new documentary Doc & Darryl before its world premiere. This was one of my must-see films. And, as usual with any film festival, my best efforts led me to an opportunity to cover the closing night film and after party for Music Box Films’ NORMAN LEAR: JUST ANOTHER VERSION OF YOU, directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. I heard Mr. Apatow was in the house minutes before the screening of Doc & Darryl was slated to begin. Knowing I only had 45 minutes to view his film and wouldn’t have the opportunity to attend the Q & A scheduled for after the screening. I grabbed my camera and hurried to the red carpet area.

Fortunately, Jacqueline Gross had Mr. Apatow’s attention. I quickly got into place and managed to get off a few shots and as Ms. Gross finished, I stood upright, reached out my hand, introduced myself and posed the question, “Why a sports film?” There we stood eye-to-eye, man-to-man, baseball aficionado to baseball aficionado. As gracious, and probably more gracious than any other industry professional I’ve managed to engage, Mr. Apatow matter of factly responded, “Well, I was on twitter one night with someone from ESPN and I told him how much I liked the 30 for 30 films. His response was ‘why don’t you do one.’ So, I did. And these guys were my heroes growing up.” I thanked Mr. Apatow for his time and made my way back to my seat inside the theater for Doc & Darryl.

While I didn’t see the film in its entirety, what I did see was a above and beyond any other 30 for 30 film I had seen to date – purely from a production standpoint. You be the judge of the narrative!

Doc & Darryl will air July 14 at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN. Watch a trailer for it here: Doc & Darryl

(Photo source: espn.go.com)