The Invisible String

Reviewed by Laura Wyatt. Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, 2013.

I had some spare time on my hands and wandered into a movie called The Invisible String. I had no idea what is was about but I got a clue before the film even started. Someone in the audience pulled out a small plastic disc and threw it into the audience. Up went a cheer, and back to him came the disc. This went on for a few minutes until the director of the movie came to the front of the stage and repeated this act but on a grander scale. He had an entire box of flying discs and he began flinging them into the audience. There were several acrobatic catches made and a lot of whooping and hollering going on. The lights went down and when the movie began, the narrator told us he was going to take us through the history of the Frisbee. It all made sense now!

I flung a Frisbee around a bit when I was a kid and even played some ultimate Frisbee when I was out of college but I wouldn’t say I know a lot about its history or have much interest. Then why was I smiling throughtout the entire documentary? Because the enthusiasm is contagious! This is a loud, colorful journey through the history of the plastic disc. The story is told through interviews, photographs, film footage, old commercials, animation and narration, all backed up by a musical score that keeps things rockin’.

The interviews take place indoors and outdoors, in quiet settings and out in the park. You get to meet the people that invented Guts, Ultimate Frisbee, Frisbee Golf, performed at halftime shows for the Harlem Globtrotters, invented crazy throwing styles and ways of catching, twirling nd hurling these discs through the air. They are an eclectic group of mainly middle aged men who all have one thing in common, their love of this little plastic round object. You can see it in the way they tell their stories and show off their still-sharp skills. They loved the freedom, the commradere, watching the disc soar, the creativity and making history.

This is one of those rare documentaries that doesn’t feel low-budget. It is shot in many locations, uses lots of graphics and music along with all the historic footage. While they are teaching you the history of the Frisbee, they open and close a curtain on different segments with the use of animation. They are paper cut outs with the real faces of inventors. It is very cartoonish but fits the quirkiness of the film. It takes us from 1948 to the present and walks us through the invention of plastic, and the introduction of the disc to the world. We are taken to Japan where we see some of the younger generation tossing the disc against buildings, around the subway and across crowded streets.

In the end we end up back in the states in Central Park where it’s”All Star Thursday”. It’s the day all the best tossers are there. Again, we see the love of the sport and/or the love of it’s art form. There is much debate, even amongst the inner crowd as to wether Frisbee should be considered art or sport. I have no doubt that debate will continue for as long as there are  flying plastic disc zinging through the air.