Nimrod Nation

[Gold Trumpet]

NIMROD NATION

This eight-part original documentary series from filmmaker Brett Morgen (THE KID STAYS IN THE PICTURE) profiles rural Watersmeet, Michigan, where everyone follows the progress of the local high-school basketball team - the Nimrods. More a portrait of a small American town than a conventional sports documentary, NIMROD NATION sympathetically observes life and conversation in the local coffee shops, hunting lodges and locker rooms as the long, cold basketball season unfolds.


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It's on Sundance Channel and it's too bad I don't get it. This documentary is about a high school basketball team from Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Of course it's about the craze of sports because that is all that matters up here and of course it's about a high school with a goofy name. The producers could have chosen Kingsford Flivvers or Ishpeming Hematites, but they chose Watersmeet Nimrods.

I grew up a few hours from Watersmeet, but their situation was no different than mine. We just had football as our main fascination. A few weeks ago I saw a high school football game at my hometown because I knew a lot of kids on the team and the most memorable thing about the game was old men screaming at the players and referees for bad plays and calls. It's insane how serious they took the play of 17 year old kids. Those guys were ridiculous, but a good part of the city showed up to watch a game with our rival. The fact is was raining and close to freezing temperatures didn't stop anyone.

I hope the documentary doesn't patronize the locals. People that come from this area have a lot of pride for it. They say people who go into the army and identify themselves as Yoopers (U.P.'ers) automatically get more respect because they are from a colder, tougher environment. It's because we're surrounded by Great Lakes on all sides that gives us all the snow and cold. I hear only Alaska beats us for a good weather chill. *

How different is the Upper Peninsula of Michigan? When I was in high school, I left for lunch one day and a line of pick up trucks came barreling into the parking lots. It was kids who skipped class and came to school to show the carcasses of the deer they had just killed. After registering their kills with the DNR, their next stop was the high school to show off the bodies. I swear 50 people gathered around the trucks in pure amazement.  

* Alaska is overall, I believe, colder. I just found out Pellston, Michigan is the coldest town in the United States.