BUFFALO, N.Y. — There aren’t many fan bases in sports that could be worthy of a movie themselves.
But spend two minutes at a Bills tailgate, and the cameras and lights set up on Jefferson Ave over the next three weeks wouldn’t surprise you.
“There's very few things as dramatic as being a Bills fan,” said J. Garrett Vorreuter, co-director and producer of the film ‘Unbilievable.’ “Between the highs, the lows, I think the fans themselves deserve that kind of spotlight.”
The spotlight is not just on being a Bills fan, but on the team’s heartbreaking and, at times, comedic past that comes with a membership to the historic fanbase.
That past will be highlighted in the upcoming film ‘Unbilievable’ directed by Scott Rubin and Vorreuter.
The movie follows three generations of Bills fans on a day all Western New Yorkers have dreamed of for the past three decades — a Bills Super Bowl Sunday.
“It’s very much a love letter to the history of the Buffalo Bills, especially its history that started here on the East Side of Buffalo,” Vorreuter said.
The film takes viewers to the streets of Buffalo and into landmarks like Mike’s Lounge, the oldest black-owned bar on the East Side and, in the movie, the lifeline for these dedicated Bills fans.
The TV falls on the ground, so they leave. And so I think the last part of this is ‘We can go down to Mike's Lounge. I know they're gonna have the game down there.’ It means a whole lot for this area. It really does,” said Tommy Fluker, owner of Mike’s Lounge.
That sentiment is not lost on the creators, who may not be natives of the city, but understand all it’s had to overcome.
“I've been in Buffalo long enough in the past few years to know that the Buffalo East Side deserves some positive stories,” Vorreuter said.”We hope to leave a positive memory behind in our wake”
The movie will be released before the home opener next fall and will be available for streaming and in regional theaters.