DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

I fell into the world of lacrosse while doing research for a screenplay I was writing entitled STIX, which is a coming-of-age story similar to THE KARATE KID, only with a lacrosse back-drop. While interviewing a coach and former player, Tom Ryan, I learned that he had just produced a short film about his experiences in the world of lacrosse entitled STIR IT UP.

After viewing the film, which I really loved and found very interesting, I proposed that we convert his short movie into a feature-length film and incorporate more aspects of the sport that were not covered or delved into in Tom’s 26-minute film. After we filmed more games and interviews, we learned that for several reasons we could not merge our new footage with his older film. Our choice was either to scrap the project entirely or create a new movie. We chose the latter, and thus was born THE RULES OF LACROSSE—AND THE MEN WHO BREAK THEM.