In a high-stakes private workout, a young basketball player is pushed to meet the demands of a national-level talent scout.

Director’s Vision for ‘Win by Two’

What is silenced when only the hardest edges of boys are considered valuable?

What is suppressed when the side of a boy that would shed tears is subsumed by the side that would shed blood?

In a world as interconnected as ours, the ramifications of boys and men choosing to live by the narrowest, most toxic definition of masculinity touch us all. Choice after choice, made by men masking their fear with power, compounded across millennia has shaped our dangerous daily reality. So as our society interrogates and redefines masculinity, I find myself drawn to stories where boys and men face moments where they make those choices.

I believe the most engaging anthropological arena in which to witness those moments is the world of sports: specifically the basketball court.

As a man who loves the game of basketball, who has played it, who has followed the careers and stories of hundreds of players for decades, I know so much of the coachspeak, trash talk, and coded language, (integral to the game as we know it) is rooted in toxic masculinity. From neighborhood courts to Olympics courts – in between those painted lines exist words and moments designed to make tensions flare. To intensify stress. To force choices. To break boys and make men.

Operating as an allegory for all such moments, “Win by Two” simply asks, “At what cost?”