Synopsis

USA, 2017; 90 min.

Meet legendary tennis coach Nick Bollettieri. A feisty mentor to such Grand-Slam stars as Andre Agassi, Borris Becker, Jim Courier, Venus and Serena Williams, and many others, Bollettieri is a blunt, no-holds-barred teacher who pushed his athletes to win—no matter the damage done to themselves or his relationships with the players. In the tradition of Errol Morris’ The Fog of War and Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing, award-winning filmmaker Jason Kohn (Manda Bala) presses his main subject on an array of issues from his mercilessly fickle favoritism to his falling out with prized pupil Agassi. Confronting a man who stubbornly resists self-reflection or personal culpability, can Kohn break the teacher and win the match? An “incisive, colorful” (Entertainment Weekly) and “extraordinary” (Rolling Stone) portrait, Love Means Zero serves up both an entertaining behind-the-scenes look at the world of competitive sports and a cautionary and timely tale about ego, accountability, and the cost of victory. Courtesy of Showtime.

Friday, April 6th @ 6:30pm

Followed by Q+A with Director Jason Kohn

director bio

Jason Kohn produced and directed MANDA BALA (Send a Bullet), a film about kidnapping and corruption in Brazil that won the 2007 Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury and Cinematography awards. LOVE MEANS ZERO, the story of legendary tennis coach Nick Bollettieri, is his second feature. He is also seven years into production on a documentary about the origins of life and synthetic diamonds.