Pittsburgh was the center of the sports world in 1979, home to the Super Bowl champion Steelers and the World Series champion Pirates. The Pirates and their rallying cry of “We Are Family” brought a renewed sense of pride to the city. But as it turned out, the family was dangerously dysfunctional, with many members succumbing to the temptation of cocaine and dragging baseball into a nationwide scandal. This film revisits that era and paints a picture of how, by 1985, easy drugs and fast nights brought the national pastime from the diamond to a federal courtroom.
On October 2nd, 1977 Dusty Baker hit his 30th homerun of the season. As Baker rounded the bases, an excited rookie named Glenn Burke met him at home plate, raised his arm high in the air and slapped Baker's hand. It was the first high five recorded in the history of sports. A year later, Burke was forced out of baseball amid rumours of his sexual orientation.
The film follows the story of a San Francisco Pentecostal minister Richard Gazowsky on his quest to shoot a groundbreaking fantasy film called Gravity: The Shadow of Joseph (described by him as "Star Wars meets The Ten Commandments"). The film follows him and members of his church as they go through pre-production and fly to Alberobello, Italy, for initial shooting that turns out to be marred with difficulties.