You might guess that David Altrogge, the Indiana, Pa., native who directed a new feature-length documentary about Pittsburgh Pirates great Roberto Clemente, is a big baseball fan.
He’s not.
Rather, in 2018, Altrogge was seeking a follow-up to his Pittsburgh-based production company Vinegar Hill’s documentary “Neat: The Story of Bourbon.”
He was looking for uplifting material.
“I just wanted to do something that inspired people to do good,” Altrogge said.
The result is “Clemente,” which leads off the 43rd annual Three Rivers Film Festival on Wed., Nov. 13, with a screening at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center.
“Clemente” is one of 21 feature-length comedies, dramas and documentaries from the U.S. and around the world that will screen during the eight-day Film Pittsburgh showcase at venues including the Harris Theater and Sewickley’s Lindsay Theater. Other locally connected films include the Pittsburgh-shot thriller “Basic Psych,” from locally based filmmaker Melissa Martin and starring Tony-winner Michael Cerveris and local native David Conrad.
As seen in “Clemente,” Roberto Clemente was nearly as acclaimed for his humanitarian efforts as for his Hall of Fame career. The right-fielder — widely considered Major League Baseball’s first Latino superstar— died, tragically, on New Year’s Eve in 1972, when a plane flying supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of his native Puerto Rico.
His life has been well-documented, but Altrogge believed there was more to say.
“I think we were able to tell a really broad, authoritative story that’s not been told on film before, and I think we were able to capture Clemente the man in a way that’s really unique,” he said.
The film draws on previously unpublicized audio interviews with Clemente, as well as home movie footage from the Clemente family and others in their circle. Filmmakers conduced their own interviews with members of the family, including his sons Luis and Roberto Jr. and the final interview with Clemente’s widow, Vera, before her death in 2019.
Other interview subjects include celebrity admirers like Pittsburgh native Michael Keaton, Clemente’s Pirates teammate Steve Blass, famed actress Rita Moreno, baseball star Francisco Lindor, sportscaster Bob Costas, rock guitarist Tom Morello, Clemente biographer David Maraniss and filmmaker Richard Linklater.
Linklater is one of the film’s many executive producers, whose number also includes Lebron James.
Other resources for the filmmakers included Duane Rieder, founder of Pittsburgh’s Clemente Museum.
The film covers all the main beats of Clemente’s life — including the racism he suffered from fans and the press in Pittsburgh, especially early in his career. But filmmaker Altrogge said he was also tuned to little-known anecdotes and relationships from Clemente’s life, “like hearing from the kid who played catch with Roberto in his front yard when he was a kid, and hearing that guy say, 'that was the first time my dad was proud of me.'”
“It makes [Clemente] real,” said Altrogge. “It takes him out of the realm of legend and makes it feel like you get to know him a little bit.”
While the “Clemente” screening at Three Rivers Film Festival is billed as a “sneak preview,” the documentary has been on the festival circuit, winning an audience award at SXSW and playing other showcases including the New York Latino Film Festival.
Altrogge said he feels like the film is reaching not just baseball fans, but also non-fans like him — and, if audience feedback is any indication, for the very reasons he intended.
“We hear things like, ‘I want to be a better husband, I want to be a better father, I want to be a better parent, I want to be a better friend,’” he said. “People are deeply moved who are like, ‘I couldn’t care at all about baseball.’"
The fest is followed Nov. 21-24 by Film Pittsburgh's Pittsburgh Shorts and Script Competition festival.
