As yet another wildfire whipped across TV screens over the weekend, destroying homes and shattering lives across another chunk of Southern California, a hopeful movie, born of similar fires last year, quietly dropped into the Chicago International Film Festival schedule.
It is “Going for Home,” one of the cinematic offerings at this year’s festival, now ongoing. People saw it at a Sunday screening and can see it at 3 p.m. Tuesday at AMC-Lincoln Park, before it heads off to other festivals and streaming services (more information at www.chicagofilmfestival.com).
Its writer and director is Eric Simonson, a name familiar to anyone familiar with our local theater scene. Simonson remains an ensemble member of Steppenwolf Theatre, which he first joined in 1993. He was its associate artistic director for a few years, then wrote plays and had success with productions such as “Lombardi,” “Magic/Bird” and “Bronx Bombers,” all of which made it to Broadway. He was involved with the premieres of the Tony Award-nominated “The Song of Jacob Zulu” and its follow-up, “Nomathemba,” at Steppenwolf in the 1990s. He made documentaries, including “A Note of Triumph” about Norman Corwin, the writer-producer-director often called “radio’s poet laureate, ” which won the 2006 Academy Award for documentary-short subject. In 2009 came his “Studs Terkel: Listening to America,” another fine piece of work.
He was lured back to the stage after many years to play the role of Dr. Dorn in a production of Anton Chekhov’s “Seagull,” the first play of Steppenwolf’s new in-the-round performance space in 2022, a return that became the subject of a slender, compelling book, “Between the Lines: Steppenwolf’s Seagull and a Reluctant Actor’s Journey Back to the Stage.”
His latest work is, on its surface, about baseball and it was born in the kitchen of the home he shares with his wife, the actress and director Sue Cremin, who also serves as one of this film’s producers. They live in Glendale, California, a suburb north of Los Angeles and west of Altadena, most of which was erased by what became known as the Eaton Canyon fire early in 2025.
A salvation of sorts was found in the surprising decision to continue to play a new season of Little League baseball. Its usual playing fields were damaged, its players scattered, and families were living in temporary housing under clouds of uncertainty, but those running the Central Altadena Little League made that bold decision to keep playing ball. Hundreds of kids, 10-to-12-year-olds, signed up. Donations of gloves and bats poured in and other leagues offered their fields.
“It was not long after the fire and my wife and I were talking and she was telling me about the decision to keep playing,” says Simonson. “We were thrilled by that and she suggested it would make a great documentary.”
They already had a relationship with the league and some of its families. Their son Henry played in the league a decade ago — “outfield and he batted something like .500,” his father proudly says — which made them welcome and not intrusive filmmakers. Henry serves as an editor on the film.
“Going For Home” is a great documentary. Yes, the fire destroyed 9,418 homes. It killed 19 people. It displaced families. You will immediately get a sense of the racial and economic diversity of the suburb and will certainly be worried about its future. Simonson shot more than 100 hours of film for the 87-minute “Going For Home.” There is baseball, of course, but also some haunting moments and uncertainty about the future. The film is able to balance emotional interviews with adults with youthful playfulness and wonder.
There are many voices, among them an adult who says, “Baseball is not a right. It’s a privilege. When everything else gets snatched away, you can still play this game; that is what is giving these kids hope.”
Yes, winning a baseball game is important, but ultimately the story here is one of human triumph, of overcoming disaster and, in a very real sense, finding hope in the ashes. Cremin has said it is about “people fighting for joy.”
You will meet some delightful fresh-faced kids and thoughtful parents. The film follows one season, artfully weaving games, pep talks and postgame tears. There are highs and lows, on the field and off, and some fine historical background.
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You will notice some prominent names associated with the film. Actor and native Chicagoan John C. Reilly is the head juror for this year’s festival, as well as executive producer for this film, and wrote and performed a splendid song at its end. And actor Paul Giamatti, a former classmate of Cremin’s at the Yale School of Drama, is also an executive producer. It was his father, the late A. Bartlett Giamatti, who served as commissioner of Major League Baseball for a short time and would, I have to believe, have loved this movie.