Basketball May Spark Film

There is much more to the Bridgehampton School than basketball. So say Orson Cummings and Ben Cummings, brothers who grew up in Bridgehampton and are planning to make a documentary film about a school with a history that stands out among its East End neighbors, with issues like racial diversity and income disparity part of the conversation over the years as well as the boys basketball team, which won its ninth Class D state championship last year.

“We thought we could follow the team, but use the team as a vehicle to explore the African-American community in the middle of the Hamptons,” Orson Cummings told the Bridgehampton School Board at a meeting on Oct. 7.

The Cummings brothers, who are about a year apart, attended Bridgehampton School through the eighth grade, leaving in 1983 and ’84 for a private high school in New Jersey where they could play tennis. They recall their elementary school years as good ones.

“The teachers were terrific. You had classes with just 10 people in them, which in some cases is a weakness in a school, but you had these amazing teachers who gave you so much attention,” Orson Cummings said by phone. “You spent a lot of time with your teachers and really got to know everyone.”

“People think about the Hamptons, where there’s this brand — the image of the fabulous 1 percent living in mansions on the beach,” he said. “There’s a side to the story of this place that hasn’t been told.”

The idea originated with an old classmate, Ronnie Gholson, who graduated from Bridgehampton in 1987 and now works in the Westhampton Beach School District as a security guard, mentor, and coach. Reached by phone, Mr. Gholson said he first pitched the idea to Carl Johnson, the boys basketball coach, who liked the idea, before contacting his old friend Ben Cummings.

“I always had a documentary in my head,” Mr. Gholson said. “Obviously, I wasn’t going to do it, write it, or put it together. I said it would be really nice if someone could do a documentary or a  book on the Bridgehampton basketball legacy. You have a lot of great stories across the country about schools and teams. . . . I think it’s just a great story that I would love to read or see in a movie.”

The Cummings brothers are no newcomers to the film industry. They wrote and produced a feature,  “If I Didn’t Care,” which was given the new title “Blue Blood” when it was released internationally. They recently wrapped up a psychological thriller, “Pacific Standard Time,” and are working on a political drama based on a book by their father, the late Richard Cummings.

The school board gave the project preliminary approval at the meeting, and the Bridgehampton Historical Society has jumped on board as a sponsor and a research partner, which will allow the brothers to raise money for the film’s production under a nonprofit organization. The Cummings brothers are also getting help with research from their mother, Mary Cummings, a longtime historian and author of books about Southampton and the 1938 Hurricane, who is a descendant of the Hildreth family who came to the East End in 1635.

  But the project was not entirely without criticism at the board meeting. Lillian Tyree-Johnson called it “exciting,” but Jeff Mansfield expressed caution.

“I think we’ve come so far and we’re so much more than those hot-button issues,” Mr. Mansfield said. “I don’t want us to look back. This school needs to look forward, and the last thing we need to do is make this school a basketball-only school.” He said he didn’t want to send the message that winning a hoops title is the pinnacle of a high school career.

Ronnie White, the school board president, said the documentary idea was a great one, but agreed with Mr. Mansfield. “It can’t just be about ball. . . . A lot of times we’re under the magnifying glass. If there are 10 kids in a graduating class and 2 decided they didn’t want to go to school anymore, that’s a 20 percent dropout rate and that’s huge.”

Ben Cummmings agreed. “Basketball is the film narrative that gets you a beginning, middle, and end, but there’s no basketball without the school.”