Jonathan Hock has made a career out of turning compelling personalities into interesting documentaries.
The Emmy winning director has turned a camera on the stories of Sebastian Telfair, Luis Tiant, Jim Valvano, Chris Herren and Marcus Dupree to strong critical response.
John Calipari appealed to him right away.
“One and Not Done,” Hock’s documentary on the former UMass and current Kentucky coach, debuts April 13 at 9 p.m. on ESPN as part of that network’s 30 for 30 series. There is a sneak preview at 7 p.m. followed by a Q&A with Hock, Thursday at Springfield College (free admission, Fuller Arts Center).
Hock spent 1½ years on the project and was given almost completely unfettered access to Calipari during that time.
“Cal is really wide open. For a guy that so many people have been so suspicious of, he’s incredibly transparent to deal with,” Hock said during a phone interview in March. “He lets you go everywhere and shoot everything you want. That’s very rare. Usually there’s a lot of paranoia that translates into being very closed off and secretive. Cal’s particular kind of paranoia is maybe reflected more in reality than some coaches. He has responded to it with openness and transparency. That was the first draw for me as a filmmaker to have that kind of access.”
Hock first worked with Calipari in 2012 for an all-access ESPN series on the Kentucky basketball program that was stopped by the NCAA because of concerns it gave the Wildcats an unfair recruiting advantage.
But it helped whet Hock’s appetite for this project.
“I honestly enjoyed spending time with him and filming him because he’s very emotionally present in whatever it is he’s doing,” Hock said. “He’s all in all the time. He requires you be all in all the time to keep up. That goes for his players and for the film crew following him around.”
In promos, Hock calls the documentary three films in one — “a biography of an immigrant son’s American Dream, an intense and revealing all-access sports film, and a meditation on corruption and the true meaning of big-time college sports.”
Calipari’s eight years at UMass occupy a significant chunk of the film’s early scenes, creating an origin story for the character that emerged nationally in the time that followed.
Former Minutemen Marcus Camby, Lou Roe, Derek Kellogg and Tony Barbee are among the over 30 people interviewed for the project.
Former Daily Hampshire Gazette UMass beat writer Marty Dobrow, who wrote the book “Going Big Time: The Spectacular Rise of UMass Basketball,” is prominently featured. (Editor’s note: The writer of this story is also included.)
“I had a vague, ordinary non-local fan’s understanding of what happened at UMass,” Hock said. “When I got into making the film and I really understood the magnitude of what was accomplished at UMass.”
Hock chronicled the Minutemen’s unexpected rise to national prominence and Calipari’s abrupt departure for the NBA while the school was under investigation for NCAA violations.
Calipari and Camby were forthcoming about Camby accepting money from agents, a violation of NCAA rules, and how it affected their reputations.
“Even though no one in his right mind would have turned down a $15 million dollar contract to stay at UMass or maybe any other school,” Hock said, “it still felt like there’s a problem and he ran out on us.”
Without mentioning anyone by name, Hock said that many coaches who dislike Calipari declined to participate. Two retired coaches — UConn’s Jim Calhoun and Georgetown’s John Thompson — spoke, somewhat measuredly, about their perceptions of Calipari.
Calhoun was one of many coaches Calipari has invited feuds with during a career that has featured more than its share of bear-poking.
“Cal thrives on friction. Cal will create friction if he doesn’t have enough in his life. He’ll say something to tweak an opposing coach or another program or a player or something just to get the haters out,” Hock said. “He needs that. He feeds on that. He’s an extremely ambitious person and an extremely competitive person. He feeds on that.
“Two things come very naturally to Cal. One is ambition, the other is a fight,” Hock continued. “He certainly has cultivated friction throughout his career. When it has come his way whether he brought it on himself or not, he doesn’t walk away from it. He embraces it.”
That theme runs through the whole documentary through Calipari’s time in the NBA, Memphis and Kentucky.
His successes and glowing testimonies from his former players are balanced against his two vacated Final Fours and the controversy created by his embrace of NBA one-and-done recruits.
“What are college athletics about? Here’s a guy who lives at the murkiest point in the center of the question,” Hock said. “He expresses his life and his career in the worst of it and the best of it.”
Hock, who is working on a two-part 30 for 30 documentary on the Celtics-Lakers rivalry, leaves “One and Not Done” liking Calipari.
“I like him a lot. I think he’s a very complicated guy,” he said. “I root for him now. I didn’t used to. I think he really does do his best for the kids. He understands that doing the best for the kids is going to be the best for him and he’s always been about doing the best for himself. That doesn’t mean he isn’t working really hard for the kids. He’s as hard working and committed to doing his job well as anyone I’ve ever seen. I really admire that. … If you’re straight up with him, he’s a very good person to deal with.”
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage