American Pastime

American Pastime

How a love of country and baseball kept alive the American Dream.

This full-length feature film tells a poignant story set against the Japanese American internment camps during World War II. Built to house Americans of Japanese ancestry whose loyalties stood questioned by the pressures of war, these camps created many hardships for their internees. Rounded up and uprooted from their everyday lives, they remained loyal to the United States and many turned to that most American of sports—baseball—as a way to deal with their plight.

Based on true events, the film stars Gary Cole (Talledega Nights, Dodgeball, TV’s The West Wing) as a minor-leaguer and guard at the Topaz Internment Camp that, amidst all the conflict, is hoping for one last shot at the Major Leagues. Directed and co-written by the writer of American Me, the cast also includes Leonardo Nam (The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift) and Jon Gries (Napoleon Dynamite).

102 minutes