EXPRESS: I really liked the Holtz family. It was interesting how comfortable the wife got on camera. You see her go through different emotions; see her being supportive, and other times seem less-than-thrilled about the idea of her husband going to play in Israel.

KESTEN: We were surprised how open she was. Sometimes, the camera can be a great tool. People may open up. I think a lot had been building up and she wanted to document it in some way. Learned that was their relationship. They give it to each other. I think a lot of people relate. They've been married a while, they get on each other's nerves, but they love each other. They accept each other's dreams. We think the world of that family.

EXPRESS: Do you think the owner knew what he was doing putting the league together?

RAPKIN: There was a lot of conversation about doing it last summer or this summer for the first year. Larry felt they needed to put stake in the ground June 24, 2007. They had momentum going and decided it was time to give it a shot. In hindsight, maybe they do things differently. At the end of day, they pulled off the first and last pitch, named a champion, had 120 players from nine countries, got managers who were some of the most prolific Jewish players of all time and pulled off a successful season.

KESTEN: The question was one of the biggest draws to the story. As exciting an idea as it seemed, it also seemed destined to fail. When you look at the facts, you had a Jewish guy from Boston in the baking industry with no sports experience who decides he's going to be the one to bring professional baseball league to the Middle East. It seemed far-fetched. Pass or fail, it seemed like a great story one way or the other. They didn't seem fully prepared. We wanted to see what would happen.

EXPRESS: What was your sense how Israelis took to baseball once they got to see it?

RAPKIN: A lot of Americans live in Israel. For them, it was a miracle it was there. For an American father who moved there for business, and has young children, to be able to take in a pro baseball game, they never imagined it would happen. For non-native-born Israelis, baseball is a game you learn with dad. It's years sitting with your dad and the scorecard, having someone explain what's a ground-rule double, what a sacrifice bunt is. Some Israelis who got to go games, got to experience the family atmosphere. If you look back at inspiration of the league for Larry, from the beginning, it was to bring over that atmosphere. Israeli families could spend evening not worrying about day-to-day challenges and just watch baseball

EXPRESS: I saw on the Israeli league site that it looks like they will try a second season after all. Are you surprised able to get it going again and do you think it will be long-term success?

KESTEN: That's a very hard question to answer. We're not privy to everything going on from business sense of the league. It's not easy. Stripping baseball away, it's a start-up business that's taking place 3,000 miles away from everyone's home base. They weren't expecting to take the country by storm; they knew it would be a long process getting Israelis interested.

RAPKIN: We know they can get players over there from all over the world. The quality of the league went far beyond what Larry originally envisioned. Originally, you would have found a lot of players you saw in the first tryout who were mostly American Jewish kids who would love to spend summer in Israel and had some reasonable baseball skills. When Dan Duquette got involved, it became very much about finding the best players who they could convince to play for $2,000 in Israel for the summer. Having fields to play on is the real challenge. It's about raising money.

EXPRESS: What was your take on Dan Duquette? He came across as a humbled general manager compared to the perception in Boston back in late '90s when he was a bit of an egocentric.

RAPKIN: Dan is a huge baseball fan. Played all the way growing up. When he was GM of the Red Sox that was his dream job. If you look at the 2003 team that won the World Series, he built that team to a large degree but wasn't able to watch them finish the job. This was a great opportunity for him to bring baseball to new country, which he helped to do in Canada [with the Expos].

KESTEN: As far as Larry was concerned, Dan was a perfect guy to approach. I don't think Larry expected him to accept the position, but he was humbled. Larry probably got him at the right time. He was out of baseball; he'd been turned down for a couple of GM openings. He opened up to us a lot more than we thought he would given what we heard about him. I think he shows vulnerability. He's one of favorite guys to see on screen. He's either saying something funny or poignant.

EXPRESS: What is the future of movie?

RAPKIN: We only recently finished and it's been seen by only a few people. We've kept it close to vest. From the few people we've shown it to, we've gotten tremendous feedback. We've gotten a couple of distribution offers. We're looking forward to Silverdocs. We're talk to people there and figure out the best way to get it out there. It should be big success in Jewish community but we hope it can crossover because it's a universal story of a guy with a dream and people saying what crazy idea it is and doing it anyway.

KESTEN: I was going to add, one thing we're proud of is Israel is featured prominently but it was somewhat apolitical. This represents a part of Israel most people in mainstream don't think about. It's a great place, inspiring place. The league mirrors Israel. Israel's mere existence is an underdog story, which is why it's the perfect setting for this kind of a league.

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