—David Menconi, Down on Copperline
For decades, Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley have been making films and television shows before people were ready for them. But being on the cutting edge turned out to be exactly the right place for their latest project, “Bananaland” – an acclaimed television series that documents the improbable history and outlandish exploits of the Savannah Bananas baseball team.
“It’s a struggle because we do tend to make things before people are ready,” says Galinsky. “If you’re ahead of your time, it’s hard to get the culture to recognize you. That’s why we were drawn to the Bananas. We were lucky enough to be there at the beginning.”
The Bananas started up in 2016 as a barnstorming baseball version of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team, treating sports like entertainment events. It’s no coincidence that owners Jesse and Emily Cole’s management company is called Fans First Entertainment, three words that sum up their operating philosophy. They’ve conjured up a version of baseball as a freewheeling circus with players on stilts, Grandma Banana Cheerleaders and promotions like “Flatulence Fun Night.” Galinsky and Hawley have been there to capture it all.
“Everybody understands what they’re going for, that they’re not like every other team,” says Hawley. “The Bananas are the only one named for a fruit, for one thing, and they get lots of attention for the antics. Something about their outsider-ness clicked with our way of making movies. We just got them in a way that elevated what they did, so they kept us around.”
Galinsky came up playing in bands including Sleepyhead, and he would bring his camera along on tour to take pictures of his peers. His visual approach transitioned from photos to film with 1994’s “Half-Cocked,” a cinema-verite portrayal of that era’s alternative-rock underground in timeless black and white. Galinsky and Hawley’s first film, it remains an underground classic.
Galinsky still plays music, lately in the local bands Elvis Division and All Things. But he’s more active in films and photography nowadays, including “The Decline of Mall Culture,” a long-running series of books and exhibitions based on photos he took in the late 1980s.
Their long-time filmmaking collaborator is David Beilinson, who primarily functions as producer. Galinsky does most of the shooting, and Hawley is the primary editor. They’ve made numerous films and documentaries together about everything from gentrification to political conspiracy theories. Sports is another recurrent subject, including ESPN “30 for 30” episodes on topics including Gatorade and college basketball.
“Sports give you such a great story arc,” says Hawley. “There’s a beginning, middle and end, people to root for or against. Everything is interesting, even the losing side.”
That dovetailed nicely with their work on “Bananaland,” which began as an ESPN series for its first season. Where ESPN was expecting it to be reality TV, it came out as more of a documentary, which probably had something to do with the network declining to renew it after one season. Undeterred, Hawley and Galinsky kept going and put season two on YouTube.
Now they’re working on a full-length documentary feature. Some of that work will be close to home this month, when the Bananas are scheduled to play their regular foes the Party Animals at Durham Bulls Athletic Park April 12-14. All three games are already sold out.
“Act One is season one, when it was an experiment,” says Galinsky. “Act Two of it is that the competition is real. And Act Three is manifestation, culture and ideas pulled together. It’s a powerful thing to witness. We imagined the show as ‘The Office’ meets ‘Ted Lasso.’ There really is that kind of energy about it.”
Savannah Bananas games involve a lot of viewer involvement to keep fans engaged, with dancing and players frequently going into the stands to interact. There are some quirky rules found nowhere else, too. If a fan in the stands catches a foul ball, for example, the batter is out. But for all that, there’s plenty of competition to go with the entertainment.
“They know that if they don’t bring that energy to every game, it will fall apart,” says Galinsky. “So they sign autographs for hours every game, there’s a lot of song and dance to it. If kids want to talk, the players kneel down to their level. (Owner) Jesse (Cole) really does not care about money. ‘Don’t show me anything,’ he’ll say, ‘just tell me if we can do it.’ The Bananas’ bottom line is always, is it good for fans?”