Ice Cube's Straight Outta L.A. named as Tribeca/ESPN Sports Festival gala

The film has been selected as the gala premiere of the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival and is scheduled to screen on April 23. 

In Straight Outta L.A. Ice Cube explores the history and cultural significance behind the maverick LA Raiders American football franchise. The film will be televised on May 11 on ESPN.

Also screening in the annual sports festival are the world premiere of Sebastian Copeland’s North Pole exploration tale Into The Cold and the international premiere of Bjoern Richie Lob’s Keep Surfing.

They join the previously announced new York Mets/Billy Joel homage Last Play At Shea by Jon Small and Greg Whiteley, The Two Escobars by Jeff Zimbalist and Michael Zimbalist, Mika Ronkainen’s amateur rugby film Freetime Machos, and Jeff Tremaine’s BMX documentary Birth Of Big Air.

“Straight Outta L.A. gives us an entertaining, first-hand account of how a professional sports team captivated a city and ultimately changed the culture of LA,” Nancy Schafer, Tribeca Film Festival’s executive director said. “For the past three years, the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival programme has been an audience favourite at our Festival, and this year’s line-up will continue that tradition.”

“Straight Outta L.A. gives us an entertaining, first-hand account of how a professional sports team captivated a city and ultimately changed the culture of L.A.,” said Nancy Schafer, executive director of the Tribeca Film Festival. “For the past three years, the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival programme has been an audience favourite at our festival, and this year’s line-up will continue that tradition.”

“We are thrilled to launch this year’s Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival with a film that shows how sports are intertwined in so many other cultural arenas,” senior vice-president of ESPN content development and enterprises Keith Clinkscales said. “All of the sports documentaries in this year’s festival truly illustrate that the reach of sports in society extends far past solely athletics and into such disciplines as music, language, art and of course, film.”

Following their individual performances, the entire Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival roster will screen at Tribeca Cinemas on May 1. Tribeca is set to run from April 21-May 2.