EDO BALL (2024)
PRODUCER: BILLY RAFTERY
ARTIST: ANDREW ARCHER
OPTION BY POINT ROAD
DEVELOPMENT
In feudal Japan's Edo Period, an orphaned peasant boy gifted in samurai basketball aspires to be the nation's emperor, but he must build a team of ballers first.
Point Road optioned Edo Ball from artist Andrew Archer. Billy Raftery and Archer, along with iconic talent and an animation company partner (TBD August 2023) are in development with an animated series, video game, merchandise line and more.
THE LAST AMATEUR (2024)
DIRECTOR, WRITER, PRODUCER, CINEMATOGRAPHER: BILLY RAFTERY
EXEC. PRODUCER: KEVIN GARNETT
PRODUCERS: MARC LEVIN, MIKE MARANGU
SALES TEAM: CINETIC MEDIA
FINAL CUT / TO MARKET Q1 2024
The Last Amateur is an intimate, all-access look into De Sousa’s controversial and riveting journey from Angola to the big-time world of NCAA college basketball at Kansas University and TN Chattanooga. Through De Sousa’s eyes, we witness the life-changing professional, psychological and emotional impact caused by his trouble with the NCAA and State of Kansas judicial system.
Along his personal journey, and reinforced by Kevin Garnett and Jay Bilas, The Last Amateur tentacles into macro social issues of youth recruiting, equitability for Black athletes, NIL legislation and life as a foreign athlete in college sports in a suspenseful and compelling delivery.
TRAILER COMING SOON
2 ON 5 (2024)
DIRECTOR: ALRICK BROWN
PRODUCERS: KEVIN GARNETT, BILLY RAFTERY, CRAIG JACKSON, MIKE MARANGU
PARTNERS: NYU FILM LAB, CINETIC MEDIA
IN DEVELOPMENT / PRE-PRODUCTION
In 1992, in a high school gymnasium, in small town rural Alabama, basketball history was made. But the young athletes who thought their dream of escaping poverty through sports was coming true, failed to transcend and ended up where they began... Until rumblings of the missing tape recently emerged 30-years later, giving them one last chance of entering the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
LION ORDER (TBD)
DIRECTOR, WRITER, PRODUCER: BILLY RAFTERY
TBD
After a career-ending injury led to an opioid addiction, NFL’er Mike James uses cannabis as a way out and seeks support from fellow U of Miami alumni Rohan Marley and Ray Lewis to end marijuana prohibition in professional sports and at state and federal levels.
GOLDEN ISLES (2024)
DIRECTOR: ALEXANDRA SAPP
PRODUCERS: BILLY RAFTERY, OLIVIA ZIMMERMAN, DOUG TRIOLA, SUSAN BEDUSA
POST-PRODUCTION
In southeast Georgia, a group of teenagers from culturally diverse backgrounds deal with daily struggles of race, queerness, and substance abuse. Growing up in a historically segregated town transformed cheeky tourist destination, these teens try to survive the complex, torturous hurdles of adolescence encumbered by the local death of Ahmaud Arbery, the national Presidential and Senate elections and the global COVID-19 pandemic.
ESPN FAN STORIES:
DR. FANDOM (2020)
DIRECTOR: BILLY RAFTERY
PRODUCERS: OLIVIA ZIMMERMAN, BILLY RAFTERY
ESPN
Fan Stories by ESPN | Dr. Fandom
The story of Dr. Daniel Wann, professor, Psychology of Sport Fandom at Murray State University.
THE MAESTRO: THE ROLLIE MASSIMINO STORY (2019)
DIRECTOR/WRITER: BILLY RAFTERY
PRODUCERS; OLIVIA ZIMMERMAN, BILLY RAFTERY
EXEC. PRODUCER: GABE SPITZER, BILLY RAFTERY
FOX SPORTS, FS1
Coach Rollie Massimino won the 1985 Division 1 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship for the Villanova University Wildcats and has never taken his foot off the gas since. Today, at the age of 82, Coach Mass is battling lung and brain cancer while attempting to win his second national championship, and this time for the NAIA’s Florida-based Keiser University Seahawks. After an Elite 8 finish last season, nine of ten key Seahawks’ have returned for the 2016-17 season in pursuit of transforming Coach Mass’ dream into a reality.
WITH A KISS (2017)
DIRECTOR: BILLY RAFTERY
PRODUCERS: OLIVIA ZIMMERMAN, BILLY RAFTERY
CBS, TURNER
Bill Raftery is one of the finest in the business when it comes to calling college basketball. That's why when it was announced that he would be joining the broadcast team for the Final Four on television for the first time in his 35-year career, the college basketball world responded with universal applause for the decision. For Raftery, 73, the entire season was an experience worth documenting. On April 2, we get to watch the legend's 2015 tournament run through the eyes of his son, Billy.
Told in an intimate, verite approach fused with a histroical backdrop, talking head include Raf's friends Jim Boeheim, Lou Carnesecca, Tom Izzo, Mike Krzyzewski, John Thompson Sr., Roy Williams, Jay Wright, Grant Hill, Verne Lundquist, Jim Nantz, Charles Barkley, Jay Bilas and young star collegiate athletes admirers of the legend of the Raf.
ANGELS IN EXILE
NARRATED BY CHARLIZE THERON (2016)
DIRECTOR, WRITER, PRODUCER, CINEMATOGRAPHER: BILLY RAFTERY
AMAZON PRIME
ANGELS IN EXILE challenges viewers to look past the violent and often graphic image of homeless youth and see them for what they are… children. In the face of constant violence, rape, trafficking abductions and murder, the street kids of Durban, South Africa have next to no way out, most turning to huffing glue for a temporary escape, resulting in addiction and pushing many over the edge to theft, dealing drugs and prostitution.
Director Billy Raftery embeds himself, where most wouldn’t stop at a red light, to share a story 8 years in the making, focusing on two inspiring kids, Zulieka and Ariel. A witness to their entire adolescence, we observe their fight to survive not only the dangers around them, but also the haunting memories of the past that led them to run to the streets in the first place.
“I was drawn to the film as you can’t help but connect with Zulieka, her strength and radiant disposition somehow shines through the unimaginably rough world she finds herself in.” - Academy Award® Winner Charlize Theron
LONG SHOT: THE KEVIN LAUE STORY
DIRECTOR: FRANKLIN MARTIN
PRODUCER: BILLY RAFTERY
HULU
Kevin Laue began fighting for his life before he was even born. With his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck in the womb, Kevin fought back using his arm as a shield. Due to a lack of circulation from the cord, he was born with an arm that ended just below his elbow. His disability is a testament to his toughness and refusal to quit. Journey with Kevin from his sleepy town in California to the runway of Air Force One and a meeting with the President of the United States into the bright lights of New York City.
*LONG SHOT has been adapted to a feature film and set up at WWE Studios.
"This is a memorable and inspirational film; beautifully done." - Tom Brokaw