Deviate with Rolf Potts · Friday, July 3, 2026
Rolf Potts introduced the central theme of the conversation: how sports movies and sports in general can serve as a 'shorthand' for understanding different places in America. He noted that rural locations often fare better in sports movies than in other film genres.
“Anyway, I've convened you guys today to talk about the geography of sports movies and the way that sports movies can serve as shorthand for understanding a place. Or really, the way that sports in general can serve as a shorthand for understanding a place.”
“And one reason I bring this up is that one thing that I cut out of my video essay was a little tangent about representation, geographical representation, sports movies and how rural places, um, actually fare pretty well in sports movies, more better so than normal movies.”