ABOUT THE FILM
CROSSCOURT CULTURES tells the story of Joseph Oyebog and his relentless desire to build the largest tennis academy in West Africa. While raising a family of six in a two bedroom apartment in Bridgeport, Connecticut, he gives private tennis lessons to the residents of Fairfield County during the summer months and then travels back to Cameroon during the winter. Through these private tennis lessons, Joseph is building a cross-cultural bridge between Connecticut and Cameroon and bringing these two worlds together. He has overcome extreme challenges to bring the sport of tennis back to his home country and fulfill his dream of training the next generation of African tennis champions.
The film will take you on an emotional journey as Joseph Oyebog shares his vision of The Oyebog Tennis Academy and inspires hundreds of people to follow him. Wherever he goes, whether it’s Connecticut or Cameroon, he leaves behind a trail of devoted coaches and supporters as well as thousands of determined, disciplined and incredibly talented tennis players. What he has accomplished is nothing short of incredible.
This is my NYU student thesis film.
We are currently in production on a feature length version of Joseph's story and need your support. If you would like to be apart of this journey and support the production of the feature film and receive a tax deductible donation. you can go to our fiscal sponsorship page to further support Joseph's story and the film.
TEAM
Miguel Garcia (Executive Producer)
Former chief architect and lead consultant for the United States Tennis Association Foundation (USTAF) in conceptualizing and executing a national capacity building program for select chapters of the National Junior Tennis and Learning Network (NJTL). The six year program was awarded a Humanitarian ESPY in 2014 for best training initiative. Miguel led two local non-profit organizations; served in both local and federal government; and created a new portfolio while serving as a deputy director and program officer at the Ford Foundation in New York City. His program expertise includes community development; economic development; youth development; affordable housing; public space and recreation; cultural development; urban planning, public health and social investment.
Emily DeLuca (Director/Producer)
An emerging documentary filmmaker with prior work experience in advertising, production, and project management. A recent graduate from New York University's master's program in Journalism. At NYU she was a Wasserman scholarship recipient, a Creative Career Design Fellow, and was employed as the program's graduate assistant. Her thesis film, CROSSCOURT CULTURES: THE JOSEPH OYEBOG STORY, won Best Documentary Short at the Houston International Sports Film Festival and Best Connecticut Film at the Mystic Film Festival. It was also selected to screen at Newport Beach Film Festival as a documentary short. She holds Bachelor of the Art degrees in English and Psychology from Lafayette College where she was captain of the Division I women's tennis team.
Since graduating NYU in 2020, she filmed, edited, and produced her first documentary short, INVADING THE CT RIVER: THE SPREAD OF HYDRILLA in partnership with the nonprofit CT Resource Conservation and Development. It was showcased at the Connecticut River Museum and screened at the Lower CT River Valley Council of Governments to help educate local legislators about the scope of the Hydrilla problem in Connecticut and create a new bill to eradicate it from state waterways.
In 2021 she launched her own company Crosscourt Media, LLC to produce long and short form multimedia stories that focus on local and state issues. She is currently in production of her first feature documentary.
Kouam Joël Honoré (Assistant Camera Operator & Translator)
Joel is a passionate video journalist with over 7 years of experience working in Douala, Littoral, Cameroun. As a freelancer, he produced content for several outlets, including Africanews, the Associated Press, Reuters, Al Jazeera English, Ruptly, and BBC Africa.
With a bachelor's degree in French & English literature from the University of Douala and a Master's degree in journalism from ESJ Paris, he is generally interested in news, but has also produced TV features and content for magazines. He has also worked on documentaries and investigations.
He is interested in stories about the environment and the defense of women and girls, especially the exploitation of children.
Elizabeth Phillipson-Weiner (Composer )
Born and raised just outside of Philadelphia, PA and is based in Brooklyn, NY, Elizabeth Phillipson-Weiner is a composer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer with a passion for storytelling through music. Her scores have premiered in films at the Tribeca Film Festival, Hollyshorts, DOC NYC, Urbanworld Film Festival and Raindance. She’s written the music for everything from non-profit campaigns to congressional campaigns. Her recent scoring work includes Stacey Maltin's debut feature film, Triple Threat from Besties Make Movies, which will be represented by Mise En Scène at the 2021 European Film Market. Elizabeth produced and scored the 2021 NAACP Image Award nominated short film, Gets Good Light. She is also a recipient of the 2020 - 2021 Alan Menken Scholarship. Elizabeth has a Master's Degree in Music Theory and Composition from New York University.
