Film:  From the 50 Yard Line (documentary)  http://www.fromthe50yardline.com/

Studio:    Blake House Media, Inc.

Director:  Doug Lantz

Screening Date:  September 15, 2007 Kansas International Film Festival

Film length:  106 minutes

Rating:  unrated 

4 stars 

Reviewer:  Deborah Ground Buckner 

In Meredith Willson's The Music Man, Professor Harold Hill convinces the population of River City that the town's Trouble (with a capital T) can be solved with the establishment of a band.  Although Hill was presented as a con artist salesman, it appears he was right.  From the 50 Yard Line will convince its viewers that participation in a marching band will—if not solve all the troubles of the world—enhance and improve the lives of every student. 

Director Doug Lantz follows the Centerville, Ohio, High School Marching Band through an entire season, from auditions to band camp to the first show to competition in the Grand Nationals.   From over two hundred hours of footage, this feature film length has emerged, telling its story with the pacing of a spirited half-time show. 

Lantz wanted to make a film about the marching band experience because the conception of marching band is “full of stereotypes, full of misunderstandings.”  He chose Centerville because he went to school there. 

The season begins with auditions with the band director patiently listening to student after student.  When the show is cast, each student is given a set of coordinates in relation to the yard lines of the football field.  Taking their places, they learn their marching routines, and they learn the importance of knowing their proper coordinates.  One person out of line can bump another, then another, resulting in a field of marchers going down like a line of dominoes. 

Band Camp provides an intense opportunity to learn the music and marching drills.  “You eat and you sleep and you do band, and that's it,” is the philosophy.  Even when three solid days of rain moves the practice inside, the director insists, “We make sure we are productive—no matter what.”   

Watching the marching performance come together is a treat in and of itself, but at the same time, it is a joy to watch the confidence and self-assurance of each student grow.  A particularly impressionable scene is the “sharing session,” a tradition of the Centerville band, where each student has an opportunity to express his or her feelings about the band and how involvement has affected life in many ways.  Some stories are sad and touching, but there is a great deal of humor as well, such as the girl who confesses to becoming obsessed with being in step.  “I'm always in step with people.  I'm in step with my cat.  It controls me.”  

The film follows the Centerville students into national competition, and it is inspiring to see how each student is affected by the participation.  In addition, another school, Fairfax High School in Hollywood, California, is presented in its first year with a band after eighteen years with no music program.  The faces of these energetic students will make one wonder why those eighteen years of silence were allowed to go by.  

The importance of a school music program is evident in other, measurable ways as well.  SAT scores are higher for music students.  Leaders of tomorrow are made possible by the skills they learn today, including the ability to concentrate and multi-task (try playing notes, marching and watching a conductor simultaneously!) and to work with others and develop leadership skills.   

From the 50 Yard Line had its world premiere at the Rhode Island International Film Festival in August 2007 where it received the audience's choice as “Best Documentary.”  At the Bluegrass Independent Film Festival in Kentucky, it was named “Best Family Film.”  Upcoming screenings include the Everglades International Film Festival in Dargle, South Africa on September 25; screenings in the Centerville area in late September; and the Indie Fest USA International Film Festival in Los Angeles October 28-November 2. 

From the 50 Yard Line will likely become a favorite of high school band directors and former marchers, but it also carries an important message for those who make the decisions about school funding and the existence of a music program.  Professor Harold Hill was right indeed!