Before the glossy magazine covers and marriage proposals from “Linsane” fans, Jeremy Lin was a quiet NBA journeyman, so unknown to the public eye, the New York Knicks’ security guards didn’t recognize him well enough to let him into the arena. For months, in a grind that would wear anyone down, Jeremy struggled to hold onto a roster spot in the sport he grew up loving. Days from being cut by the third consecutive basketball team, no one could have ever predicted what was going to happen next. The unassuming Harvard alum would take us on one of the wildest rides in sports history as fans all around the world began to take notice.
Jeremy Lin is a private, simple, and humble person. They requested to film him repeatedly, but he felt there wasn’t much of a story to tell. At the time, it seemed laughable to him that his story would be something people would want to hear. Fortunately after much persistence, he graciously agreed to the cameras. What began as a film project to document the life of an overlooked NBA walk-on became a small crew’s all-access pass to one of the unlikeliest stories ever to be told.

Before Linsanity, they were documenting a struggling basketball player and the wild turn of events he was leading. After Linsanity hit, they captured a determined athlete whom fans want to know “What makes this man tick?” They gained exclusive footage with friends, family, teammates, pastors, and Jeremy himself, from home videos of a young Jeremy Lin taking it to the hoop, his personal reflections as he struggled through stints in the NBA D-League, that Christmas day when he was cut by the Rockets, to when he joined the Knicks with a coach he had yet to speak to and a playbook he hadn’t even seen. They traveled with him to Asia to explore his family roots and interviewed him about his hopes and aspirations in the NBA.

Jeremy Lin’s story is so improbable, Hollywood couldn’t script this for the absurdity of being too unrealistic. Jeremy’s career is the antithesis of NBA convention. He grew up as a skinny Asian American kid in Palo Alto, CA, home to some of Silicon Valley’s most successful technology companies. The more they dug into his story, they saw how each seemingly unconventional turn became the foundation for the next opportunity – each success and challenge became a building block for bigger and better things, weaving together an impossible story that could only have ever happened that exact way. They have had the exclusive permission to document Jeremy’s personal life for several years now, capturing never-before-seen footage of him at the highest and lowest points in his basketball career. An intimate portrayal of a rising hero fighting unbeatable odds, it is their joy to share Jeremy Lin’s story with you now.

Linsanity the Movie is headed to the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, but they still need funds to complete the film. Funds they need will go towards sound editing, graphics, color-correction, marketing, licensing music and NBA footage. If you want to be part of history, you can contribute here.

Linsanity the Movie : sneak peek

Jeremy Lin talks about Linsanity: The Movie