MASTER
 
 

Playing for The Mob

By 33rd Boston Film Festival (other events)

Saturday, September 27 2014 7:10 PM 9:00 PM EDT
 
ABOUT ABOUT

Playing for The Mob   Narrator Ray Liotta  Co-Directors:  Joe Lavine, Cayman Grant   Stars: Jim Sweeney – Former BC basketball player, Ed McDonald – Prosecutor of BC-point shaving case (played himself in the movie "Goodfellas")  (East Coast Premiere)

What happens when you combine “Goodfellas” with college basketball? You get “Playing for the Mob,” the story of how mobster Henry Hill – played by Ray Liotta in the 1990 Martin Scorsese classic – orchestrated the fixing of Boston College basketball games in 1978 and 1979. The details of that point-shaving scandal are revealed for the first time on film through the testimony of the players, the federal investigators and the actual fixers, including Hill, who died shortly after he was interviewed. “Playing for the Mob”may be set in the seemingly golden world of college basketball, but like “Goodfellas,” this is a tale of greed, betrayal and reckoning. Ultimately, they both share the same message: With that much money at stake, you can’t trust anybody.

 

 

Our Tough Guy  (16 min)                                                              

John Wensink's most infamous moment came on December 1, 1977. After finishing up an exchange of fists with Alex Pirus, Wensink skated over to the Minnesota bench and motioned with his hands, challenging the entire team but no player responded. Through Wensink¹s own words, and additional context provided by his teammates, Terry O'Reily and Rick Middleton, this short will delve into the mindset of a “Goon”, and the journey one takes when that life is left behind.