A HOME FOR RONNIE WOO: First Time Documentarians Capture The Life of A Superfan

By Dixon Galvez-Searle, SCREEN Magazine

- 11/24/2004

Most Chicago Cubs fans are familiar with the image of Ronnie "Woo Woo" Wickers. The jubilant, eternally optimistic fan has been featured on sports broadcasts, spotted at over 3,000 baseball games and dubbed the team's unofficial mascot. Thanks to director Paul Hoffman and his documentary "Woo Life," which is currently in post-production, fans will get to know more about Wickers as a man.

"Woo Life" tells Wickers' story, from a childhood spent with his abusive mother to an adult life spent passionately following the Cubs. The movie shows Wickers' troubles with money and with Cubs' brass as well as his quest to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh inning stretch at Wrigley Field. Numerous interviews with friends, family and sports journalists illuminate Wickers' life and flesh out his story, which includes a prolonged stretch of homelessness during the 1980s.

The fact that Wickers has been homeless really got to Hoffman, a founding partner by trade of HealthCom Partners. "The lightbulb went off in my head that this story needs to be told," he says. "Nobody in Chicago really knows the story of this man who's come to embody the Cubs' super-fan." Half of the proceeds from the sale and distribution of "Woo Life" will be donated to the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) and to a college trust fund for Wickers' daughter.

Hoffman started the project by finding out more about Wickers and about the filmmaking process itself. "I took some classes [at Columbia College Chicago] cause this is not something I went to school for," he says. Hoffman purchased a Canon GL-1 and some high quality mics, and solicited Nick Mantis, a cameraman from Indiana, to help him shoot some early material. But soon he adopted a one on one approach. "Most of the filming was just me and Ronnie," says Hoffman.

At first, Hoffman had trouble getting people to go on record about Wickers. "It wasn't something that people embraced in the very beginning," he says. Hoffman found support from Wickers' friends and people like actor Joe Mantegna and the late sportscaster Tim Weigel. "The people who really knew and understood Ronnie were very supportive," Hoffman notes.

In September of 2003, towards the end of shooting, Hoffman got in touch with Joe Marrazzo, a freelance editor from Chicago. Marrazzo says Hoffman was having trouble getting editors to commit to such a long project, but that he was able to put in the time that was necessary. Because of Hoffman's shooting style and dedication, Marrazzo had over 300 hours of footage to work with. "It took me a month or two just to absorb all the information and digitize it," he says.

Marrazzo inherited a narrative structure whereby the film was divided into nine "innings." He says it was helpful for organizational purposes, but "it was also hard to work around at times." For instance, the movie climaxes with Wickers singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." This occurs in the seventh inning, leaving two more segments to fill before the credits roll. These focus on the fallout from Wickers' performance and his newfound role as a speaker for the CCH.

"I want to use Ronnie and his story as a way to bring attention to the homeless issue," says Hoffman. He also wanted to shed some light on Wickers' spirit and perseverance. "I felt the responsibility to tell [his story] in the best way I could," says Hoffman. "That basically motivated me to spend a lot of my moonlighting hours." A benefit screening is planned for early April, just before the start of the baseball season.

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