NoTsuOh Ultimate Frisbee Team Immortalized in Celluloid

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The boys from NoTsuOh at Paganello.

​The Houston-based ultimate team NoTsuOh may not have been a legend around these parts, but mention the name to beach Frisbee players in Rimini, Italy, and you may very well hear somebody utter the word "dynasty."

Formed by Sean McCall in 2000, the squad, which was comprised of Houston-area players, rarely practiced or competed here. However, when they performed in the European Super Bowl of beach ultimate, they tore it up and then some.

From 2000 to 2006, NoTsuOh grabbed five titles at Paganello, a 20-year-old ultimate competition that takes place each Easter weekend on the beaches of Rimini. To date, the team, which disbanded in 2007, is the all-time record holder for championships won in the open division.

In 2007, Sean McCall's brother Brett documented the team's swan song at Paganello during the five-day competition in hopes of making a festival-friendly film. Four years later, McCall's il mondo in una spiaggia/the world in one beach is about to post up on the big screen for the first time.

The 30-minute flick (McCall's first) bookends NoTsuOh's legend with footage from their initial 2000 championship run as well as McCall's on-location shots from '07. In addition to acting as a historical recounting of the team, McCall strived to document the sport's culture, which is something few people from the outside really get to experience, according to McCall.

"A lot of the footage from ultimate is all about the highlights of the game itself, like something you'd see on ESPN. I wanted to do something more culturally specific," says McCall, who spent just under $10,000 on the film. "I wanted to do a story about the Italians and I wanted to share the undercurrents that run throughout the sport. I think that I accomplished what it is that I wanted to."

Thus far, McCall, who now resides in Asheville, North Carolina, has pitched the movie to film festivals in Asheville, New York, Boston and Amsterdam. And if you're wondering if there's a NoTsuOh reunion in the works, there's not, says McCall.

However, you can meet the filmmaker and other key folks when il mondo in una spiaggia/the world in one beach makes its Houston premiere on Friday, March 18, at Kicks Indoor Soccer, 611 Shepherd Drive. The free shindig goes off from 6 to 7 p.m. For more information, hit up the Facebook event page.

Additional SXSW screenings are scheduled to take place at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at TAD, 503 Neches Street, and 8 p.m. Saturday at A.C.E.S. Building, Avaya Auditorium, 201 East 24th Street.

To see the film's trailer, check this out.