In 25, a team of basketball players from Vancouver, whose average age is seventy-two, arrive at the World Masters Games in Calgary and, after losing three games to teams twenty years and more younger than themselves, receive the gold medal in their category—which is itself best described by the title of the documentary movie directed by Sharon McGowan and released late last year: The Oldest Basketball Team in the World. This little movie (48 minutes), beautifully photographed in the style of great basketball photography, is the story of the Retreads, as the team named itself, and follows team members and their septuagenarian coach through preparation and training, and on to the Masters itself: a story of struggle, defeat and inevitable triumph. Basketball is a contact sport, we are reminded viscerally as we observe these aged women storm magnificently up and down the court, striving for the layup. There is something ineffable about watching a seventyyear-old crash to the floor, and indeed in one of several gut-wrenching moments an arm is broken on camera (she with the broken arm can be seen reclining in the cover photo). One of the players confirms more than once that the coach is carrying her nitroglycerine tablets in his pocket. “You have to get ready for a rough and tumble game and at this age it’s not easy,” one of the players says to the camera. “You got to get the job done and do what you have to do,” says another. Sports talk is always sports talk. But the sports talk in this movie resonates with overtones of previous lives lived, and still living. Coming back to the game after so many decades, says another of the players, “is like wanting to go home.” This movie will keep you on the edge of your seat. The DVD is available for a tiny fee at www.oldestbasketballteam.com.