Film director Gabe Polsky.
With his new documentary In Search of Greatness, director Gabe Polsky explores creativity and the role it plays in athletic excellence. Speaking to hockey’s Wayne Gretzky, football’s Jerry Rice and soccer’s Pelé, the American filmmaker celebrates ingenuity as a key to success – not only on the ice or the playing field, but in society in general. Polsky, who played hockey at Yale and whose most recent film was 2015’s feature hockey documentary Red Army, spoke to The Globe and Mail from Boston.
You’re involved with the National Geographic television series Genius, which in its first season profiled Albert Einstein. With In Search of Greatness, one of the athletes you focus on is Wayne Gretzky. Can we call him a genius?
Undoubtedly. There’s no argument against that. Einstein was a rebel in his field. The same with Gretzky. He was thinking about the game in a way no one ever did before. I don’t want to say he was an intellectual player, but he clearly was accessing a different game than everybody else.
I found what Gretzky had to say fascinating. Were you surprised, as someone who asks people questions for a living, how well he expressed himself on camera?
He only gave me about an hour and 20 minutes for the interview. I had to be very focused in my questions. Going into any of my films, I don’t want to repeat what has been done before. And I do feel I got a side of Gretzky that no one has seen before.
Do we call him a rebel, though? Seems to me his approach to the game was born out of necessity, as a guy who was not physically imposing, rather than him challenging conformity.
Maybe I misused the word “rebel.” Guys like Pelé or Gretzky or Jerry Rice didn’t see themselves as bucking the system. They did what they needed to do. With Gretzky, there was no other way. Either he survives or he dies. It’s the same with [New England Patriot quarterback] Tom Brady. They had to figure out the game around their weaknesses, and I think you can apply that to any field.
One of the themes of your film is the ingenuity of great athletes, and how modern coaching techniques stifle creativity. Were you were worried about coming off as a fogey, complaining about how things were better decades ago?
I was. That’s not how I think, but I was aware of that reception. I think as human beings we have to be aware of the dynamics and ideas that are discussed in the film. To celebrate and enjoy creativity is to have a happier and healthier society. I really believe there’s a correlation between greatness and health and happiness.
Muhammad Ali is in the film. Is it fair to say that if he were alive today he would have been at the top of your list of interview subjects?
It’s more than that. Muhammad Ali is the embodiment of what this film is all about. This guy was a poet in the ring. Nobody had seen his kind of beauty and athleticism. He was a dancer. A performer.
Float like a butterfly, right?
Exactly. And he was telling people what he was. People were so stupid, they weren’t even getting it. If somebody wonders what sport is, just watch Muhammad Ali. It’s creativity. It’s poetry. And if you’re not a poet as an athlete, or in any field that you choose, you’re not great.
This interviewed has been condensed and edited.
In Search of Greatness opens Nov. 9.
Brad Wheeler