Stephen Bisaccia with the Valley Washups.
DERBY – They can throw a ball. They can hit one with a bat – sometimes. But can they win a game?
That’s the question asked in The Valley Washups, a new documentary by Derby’s Bisaccia brothers, premiering 6 p.m. May 15 at Derby Neck Library. Following the “triumphs and tragedies of a hapless local softball team,” the film captures the titular team’s first year as they strive to weasel out a single win in the Milford Monday Rec League.
The Valley Washups – formed last year from a ragtag bunch of mostly late-twenty-something Derby and Ansonia high school alumni – started documenting their hard-fought struggle early. Kevin Bisaccia, a 2021 Derby High School graduate and freelance filmmaker, brought along his camera and shot practices and games throughout the season.
“It gave him (Kevin) a reason to get out of the house Monday nights and just acquire footage, and I think it just sort of snowballed,” said Stephen Bisaccia, Kevin’s older brother who played on the team. “I think he was doing it just to do it, and then by the end of the year, he had enough content to make an hour-long documentary.”
You can watch a trailer for the documentary here.
Stephen, who described himself as the team’s “player-coach,” said they were fighting an uphill battle when they came together last year.
“It was a good time, but we were terrible,” Stephen said. “There were a lot of people on the team who had never really played any form of organized bat-and-ball sport before, so there was a lot of firsts on the team.”
Kevin directed, edited, and did voiceover work for the documentary. Stephen said viewers can expect bittersweet heartbreak and a fair dose of wackiness.
“It definitely takes a sort of comedic angle, it leans into the fact that we were pretty bad,” Stephen said. “There’s also some sort of surreal elements.”
He said that Kevin, who’s not as into sports as his older brothers, was able to bring out the avant-garde in the team’s escapades.
“I would say a third of the film, that’s Kevin being experimental,” Stephen said.
The Bisaccias’ father also played, and Stephen said that the interviews with him are his favorite part of the film.
“Where I think the story’s heart is, and where a lot of the best content is, is interviews that come from my dad, who was also playing on the team, and his perspectives on recreation and the value of people coming together Monday night and losing every night together,” Stephen said. “The story there is that we still found a way to have fun, we still deciphered our own sort of value from it.”
The fact that Derby Neck Library is hosting the world premiere is no accident: Its film program was started by Andrew Bisaccia, brother to Kevin and Stephen, back when he was in high school.
That program proved to wield a wide influence over the younger brothers’ lives. Stephen, after graduating from high school, went on to do filmmaking full-time. His 2019 short Acts of Contrition picked up awards at multiple New England film festivals, and he’s gone on to work as a videographer for multiple universities in Connecticut. Last year, a video of his was featured in a Wall Street Journal article.
Andrew, meanwhile, now runs Derby Neck Library’s film program full-time, where he’s continued to serve as a mentor to his younger brothers and offer a space for dozens of other film enthusiasts in the community.
And, if the film leaves you with a hunger for more, you can catch the real-life Valley Washups every Monday night. They’ll be playing the Flyin’ Hawaiians at Washington Field in Milford at 7 p.m., May 20; you can view a schedule for the league here.
