Case Study

Q Ball

HEIST’s Emmy-nominated, award-winning feature-length documentary “Q Ball” tells the story of the San Quentin Warriors and their search for redemption and purpose.  Executive Produced by Kevin Durant, and ultimately acquired by Fox Sports and then distributed by Netflix, this is the first of several feature-length non-fiction projects currently in development.

“Q Ball” was developed over the course of 5 years, in close collaboration with California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

That journey began in 2013 when we first approached prison authorities and asked if they’d be open to us producing a short film inside San Quentin Prison, featuring the prison’s inmate baseball team. The CDCR placed their trust in our production team and granted us three days inside San Quentin. The New York Times took the resulting short film and featured it in their OpDocs Series.

Building on the trust established during that first project, we then began exploring other possible stories with the CDCR. Very quickly, San Quentin’s basketball program became the focus. HEIST spent the next four years approaching financiers, distributors and networks. Finally, in 2017, new leadership inside Fox Sports saw our pitch and immediately jumped on it. A month later, we were once again filming inside the prison.