A documentary film that follows the 2025 Central Altadena Little League season in the wake of the Eaton fire will be screened Wednesday, April 15, during the Pasadena International Film Festival.
Writer and director Eric Simonson and his wife Sue Cremin — who produced the film live in Glendale — had a connection to Altadena through their now adult son who went to school in the community and played in the Central Altadena Little League.
They filmed, “Going for Home,” for six months starting in March 2025 and followed the league season with a focus on three teams. Despite 90% of families in the league losing their homes or being displaced in the fire, the season went ahead.
Simonson and Cremin said it took some work to get the kids to open up, but they did not approach the film with any preconceived idea of what they would capture.
“Our idea was just to be there,” Cremin said. “We didn’t know if it was a short, we didn’t know if it was a feature length, we really just jumped into it.”
What they captured was a community that united around baseball and having a place to go. Cremin said kids and parents would stay and watch games even if they weren’t involved. Simonson said people who lost everything felt comfortable being with others had gone through similar loss without the need to explain themselves.
“Just watching baseball felt like home to them,” Simonson said. “They had lost their home, this was their home now, their home was their community and their home was the baseball field.”
The Okelberry family have been displaced from their Altadena home since the Eaton fire living in San Gabriel and now in Pasadena. Jessie Okelberry didn’t think there was any way for the league to play the 2025 season.
She described the season going forward as therapeutic given everything going on around them. Jessie and her husband Nathan Okelberry have two sons, 12-year-old Owen and 9-year-old Lewis who play in the Central Altadena League.
“I think for us it was a nice little distraction,” Nathan Okelberry said. “To have something that devastated that entire neighborhood and community, but then still seeing everybody together and doing something that was collectively for our kids.”
Owen’s 2025 team was one of those that is highlighted in the film and it coincided with what his family described as a storybook season. Despite struggles finding places to practice and families traveling long distances, the team won the Tournament of Champions, a regional competition of the best teams from the nearby Little Leagues.
Owen said he was relieved that the 2025 season went ahead. He said having cameras around didn’t add pressure, but brought up the spirits of the team. He said his team’s triumph against much more resourced opposition and in the context of the fire was a powerful example of overcoming obstacles.
“A lot of people got to see this group of kids that had been through everything succeed, it gave them a little up in their day,” Owen said.
The film premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival earlier this year. Simonson is an Academy Award-winning filmmaker winning for Best Documentary Short in 2006. He was nominated in the same category in 2001.
“I was really happy to see somebody wanting to tell our story,” Jessie Okelberry said. “A big fear as Altadenans is that our story is going to fade and become yesterday’s news and we’re still living this day in and day out 15 months later.”
She said the film did not shy away from the ongoing struggle of Altadena residents working to rebuild their lives after the fire.
“I hope that it inspires others to invest in their own communities because it certainly in the worst of times paid us back in dividends,” Jessie Okelberry said.
Simonson said on may of his projects the old industry adage of, “you don’t finish the show, the show finishes you,” applies. However, that has not been his experience on this film.
“I could watch it probably 100 times and not get bored and I love watching it with an audience,” Simonson said.
Despite the serious subject matter, Simonson said, the kids in the film bring a joy and laughs. He said the score, composed by Violent Femmes singer and songwriter Gordon Gano adds to the film’s impact.
“We live in really dark times and the story we’re telling is one that has a lot of hope in it,” Simonson said.
Next month, the film will be screed on the final day of the Central Altadena Little League season on Saturday, May 16, at 8 p.m. at Loma Alta Park. The film will also be screened as festivals in Arizona and Wisconsin later this year.
Wednesday’s screening will begin at 5:50 p.m. at Laemmle NoHo 7, 5240 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. Tickets are available at laemmle.com or pasadenafilmfestival.org.
“People can have a lot of different things to say about youth sports, and Little League in particular, but one of the beautiful things about it is that it’s still, for the most part, local,” Nathan Okelberry said. “These are your neighborhood kids, kids that are within a really small geographical area and so it’s not always about winning it’s just about that community thing.”