COMING up clutch in 2020 is a new sports documentary series called, cheekily enough, Who Got Balls. And despite the name, balls aren’t just on display in the shortform series — there’s also pole vaults and surfboards, and a wide variety of athletes sharing their experiences.
There’s Jeff “The Jet” Cariaso to represent hoops, Luke Landrigan to rep surfing, and (all the way from the Formia Olympic Training Center in Italy) EJ Obiena to talk about his pole vaulting journey. Alyssa Valdez and Sisi Rondina also get one episode each.
“The lineup was handpicked,” said the show’s executive producer Danzen Katanyag to SPIN Life. “We went through a series of proposals made by our team of producers and researchers and we based the final list on the athlete’s performance and achievements, influence, and of course, the reality of the logistics.” (The show was entirely shot and produced during the lockdown period.)
Future episodes will also feature Marc Pingris, Roger Casugay, Caloy Yulo, Meggie Ochoa, and more.
The series is currently showing now in TrueID. First introduced in Thailand, TrueID is an all-in-one digital entertainment platform that's now available in the Philippines, dishing out free curated content. The series was also fully funded and produced by True Digital for TrueID.
Who Got Balls already beefs up the platform's existing lineup of local and international sports content. (Alyssa herself is also a TrueID ambassador.)
Katanyag continued: “Who Got Balls is a collection of stories of remarkable Filipino athletes with their own unique experiences, [that] the production team weaved into short films.”
The filmmaking team is as diverse as the athlete lineup, including Italian athlete and filmmaker Samuelle Cero (presumably to handle the EJ Obiena episode), Japan-based director and cinematographer Michelle Basco, La Union-based surfer and director Mark Mabanag, and Cebuano filmmaker Denzel Yorong.
“This is the first season,” said Katanyag. “[It’s] the first of its kind and we hope to inspire Pinoy sports fans and other young athletes, let them see the unique perspectives of these superstars, [and] just learn from them and be stronger in adversity.”
You can watch the first episode starring Cariaso by tapping here.
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