Cold War in Philly: Joe Amodei Directs His First Documentary

What happens when a film distributor with more than 40 years in the business finally makes his own documentary?

Joe Amodei grew up in Philadelphia watching the Flyers with his parents, sisters and brothers. From the family living room, he watched the team he still calls his heroes beat the Soviet Red Army on January 11, 1976. After decades of releasing other people's documentaries, he decided it was finally time to make his own. Cold War in Philly tells the story of that game and of the players who are still Philadelphia heroes 50 years later. Joe calls it a love letter to them.

In Episode 283, Christian Taylor welcomes Joe back, this time as a first-time director. He explains how he got access to a legendary NHL team: a cousin who works with the Flyers alumni, and a man named Brad Marsh who runs the alumni group and told the players Joe was a good guy. Before he interviewed anyone, Joe spent almost a year on contracts with the Flyers, Comcast and the league. He got the players on camera, including Ed Van Impe and Bernie Parent, who have since died. He retells the film's story of arena announcer Lou Nolan swapping Kennedy half dollars for Soviet pins with the Soviet team's minders, and shares stories that didn't make the cut, like the Soviet players leaving with every towel and bar of soap.

The film took two and a half years, mostly because Joe made it while running Virgil Films, a mistake he won't repeat. He kept it under $250,000, the same ceiling he gives every documentary filmmaker. It opened in Philadelphia and sold out every screening, so six planned screenings became 17 in July alone. Then Joe tells, for the first time anywhere, why the film ends with a photo of him and Morgan Spurlock. When Joe found the project, he offered it to Spurlock to direct. Spurlock turned it down and told Joe to direct it himself, and when Joe said he wasn't a director, Spurlock said, "Yes, you are." Spurlock died not long after. The episode ends on why the work is worth it: players thanking Joe in tears, and the daughter of the Flyers' broadcaster Gene Hart hearing her father call that game for the first time in 50 years.

Full disclosure: since 2022, Joe's company, Virgil Films, has distributed Christian's film The Girl Who Wore Freedom, and it sponsors Documentary First, including this episode.

WATCH THE FILM

Cold War in Philly: Flyers vs Russia 1976 is available to rent or buy on Amazon, Apple TV and Fandango at Home, with links on the film's site: https://coldwarinphi