Bishop Sycamore documentary to debut at Tribeca Film Festival, with HBO debut not long after

On Tuesday morning, the prestigious Tribeca film festival announced the 109 films that will be shown at the upcoming June event in New York City. On that list was the HBO documentary on Bishop Sycamore, BS High, which is described below.

BS High, (United States) – World Premiere. After a nationally televised high school football game between top-ranked IMG Academy and unknown Bishop Sycamore ended with an IMG blowout win, it’s discovered that Bishop Sycamore isn’t at all what it seems. Directed by Martin Desmond Roe, Travon Free. Produced by Jack Turner, Spencer Paysinger, Todd Schulman, Constance Schwartz-Morini, Adam McKay, Michael Strahan, Jay Peterson, Todd Lubin. An HBO Sports Documentaries release.

We’re told that the film (above description from Variety) is likely to debut in July or August on HBO, which would be close to the two-year anniversary of when the scandal exploded.

Awful Announcing published dozens of investigative articles  on the Bishop Sycamore scandal, and through that reporting, as well participating in two separate and now shelved documentary projects, we’re incredibly eager to see BS High and for the public to get a better understanding of the entirety and complexity of the scandal.  We most recently wrote a one-year lookback, with some new reporting on the conditions players endured and the program’s continued hopes to relaunch given their newfound notoriety.

Bishop Sycamore: One year later

BS High wasn’t the only sports documentary unveiled in the Tribeca announcement. Jay Caspian Kang’s upcoming 30 for 30 documentary on Michael Chang, American Son, is also set to debut along with Netflix’s The Saint of Second Chances, which looks at promotor Bill Veeck of Disco Demolition Night infamy.

Given the streaming era has added a glut of sports documentaries (some of which have had questionable quality or murky editorial involvement), it’s great to see a strong and diverse class of docs getting prestigious film festival placement.

[Variety]