Press
Awards
Winner — Special Jury Award for Best Canadian Feature & 2nd Place Audience Award
Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival
Winner — Audience Award for Best Canadian Feature Film
Vancouver International Film Festival
Winner — Audience Award for Best Feature Film
Whistler Film Festival
Winner — Audience Award
Chicago International Documentary Festival
Winner — Best Script
Krasnagorski — Russian International Festival of Sport Films — Moscow, Russia 2007
Honorable Mention
Sports Movies & TV — Milan, Italy
Reviews
"One of the most spiritually rewarding movies you will ever see."
"The players do things that will absolutely blow your mind... chinlone suggests that what remains in sport when the desire to kill your opponent is taken away can be as exciting and beautiful as a game with a score and an enemy."
"A very compelling quest story, told with passion, great humour, sensitivity and wonderful visuals. The fact that you were able to draw out the spiritual side of a sport makes it a truly inspirational experience — a very rare thing these days."
"The visually stunning Canadian feature Mystic Ball brought audiences to their feet and snagged the Best Feature award."
"The veterans team left me absolutely speechless. Six players all 65, 75 and even 85 years old, playing and performing chinlone."
"You know how sometimes you see a film that changes you... this did that for me."
International Reviews:
(Click a country to expand — English translations included)
🇯🇵 JAPAN (日本語)
1. Distributor & Retail Master Summary
以前レンタル店でふと手に取って興味が湧いた作品💿 ミャンマーで1500年続く伝統文化で国技のチンロン。アートとサッカーの融合というのか。何人かでチームになり相撲の土俵の様な所でサッカーのリフティングの様にボールを地面に落とさず蹴り続け色々な技を披露するスポーツのようなもの。勝ち負けは存在せず非常に神秘的で宗教儀式に近い感じ。日本の蹴鞠（しゅうきく）とも通じる面があるとも。チンロンに魅せられたカナダ人のグレッグ・ハミルトンが取材をしてこの競技というかパフォーマンスを紹介していくドキュメンタリー。技が超人の技術で人間離れしていて感動した記憶。
[English Translation] "A film I happened to pick up at a video rental store a while ago out of curiosity. Chinlone is a 1,500-year-old traditional culture and the national sport of Myanmar. You could call it a fusion of art and soccer. A team of several people stands in a ring resembling a sumo ring, continuously kicking the ball to keep it off the ground—much like soccer juggling—while showcasing various techniques. There are no winners or losers. It feels incredibly mystical, almost like a religious ritual. It might share some common roots with Japanese Kemari (ancient football). This documentary follows Greg Hamilton, a Canadian captivated by Chinlone, as he investigates and introduces this sport—or rather, this performance. I remember being deeply moved by the super-human, otherworldly level of technical skill."
2. High-Impact Marketing Taglines
フリースタイル・フットボールをも凌駕するミャンマー伝統スポーツ"チンロン"。数々の超絶足技テクニックは見るものを釘付けにする。東南アジア神秘のスポーツに魅了された男の物語。一人の男の体と心の探求を追った映画"ミスティックボール"。すべてのシーンは情熱に溢れ、観る者に神秘的な感覚を与えるドキュメンタリーである。
[English Translation] "Traditional Myanmar sport 'Chinlone' surpasses even freestyle football. Transfixing viewers with incredible, super-technical footwork. The story of a man captivated by a mysterious sport of Southeast Asia. The movie 'Mystic Ball' follows one man's quest for body and mind. Every scene is full of passion, making it a documentary that gives viewers a mystical feeling."
3. Audience Review: Visual Aesthetics
夕焼け空にチンロンをプレーしている人のシルエットがくっきりと浮かぶシーンが綺麗。観る者に神秘的な感覚を与える素晴らしいドキュメンタリー。何よりも、ボールを落とさないための一体感が画面から伝わってくる。
[English Translation] "The scene where the silhouettes of people playing chinlone stand out sharply against the sunset sky is absolutely beautiful. This is a wonderful documentary that truly leaves the viewer with a sense of the mystical. Above all, the collective unity shared by the players to prevent the ball from dropping radiates directly through the screen."
4. Audience Review: Soul Journey
サッカーの技術を超えた、その言葉通りの超人的な技術。人間離れしていて本当に感動した。ただのスポーツの記録ではなく、一人の男が心と体、そして仲間を見つける魂の旅の映画。
[English Translation] "An absolute superhuman level of technique that transcends standard soccer footwork. It is so detached from ordinary human capability that it deeply moved me. This is not just a sports record; it is a film about a man's spiritual journey to discover his mind, body, and community."
🇰🇷 SOUTH KOREA (한국어)
1. Official National TV Festival Broadcast Synopsis
'친론'은 무용이자 명상이며, 단체운동이지만 경쟁도 승자도 패자도 없다. 미얀마의 전통 스포츠 친론의 세계로 떠난 감독의 열정적 여정을 담은 작품으로, 친론을 통해 감독은 공동체 정신과 따뜻한 가족을 찾았고 그를 받아준 미얀마 선수들은 자신들의 숨겨진 예술을 세상에 선보인다.
[English Translation] "'Chinlone' is at once a dance, a meditation, and a team sport—yet it possesses no competition, no winners, and no losers. Capturing the director's deeply passionate journey into the world of Myanmar's traditional sport, this film follows how he discovered a profound sense of community spirit and familial love through Chinlone. In return, the Myanmar players who warmly embraced him are able to showcase their hidden, beautiful art to the entire world."
2. Media Feature: Broadened Perspectives
해밀턴 감독은 고대로부터 전해져 왔지만 잘 알려지지 않은 미얀마 전통 스포츠 '친론'에 깊이 매료됐다. 친론은 상대편 없는 팀 스포츠이며... 가깝지만 멀게만 느껴지던 버마라는 나라에 대해 다른 관점에서 접근해 카메라를 든 사연이 있다. 영화는 외부인의 시선으로 친론을 배우기 시작해 마침내 최고 수준에 도달한 경이로운 여정을 담았다. 대중적 인기가 증명하듯 깊은 영감을 준다. 작품을 연출한 그렉 해밀턴 감독은 캐나다 출신으로 친론의 권위자이며 외국인으로는 드물게 친론의 최고 수준에 도달한 것으로 평가받는다.
[English Translation] "Director Hamilton became deeply fascinated by 'Chinlone,' a traditional Myanmar sport passed down from ancient times but largely unknown to the broader world. Chinlone is a team sport played without an opposing side... One man took up a camera to approach Burma—a country that felt physically close but culturally distant—from a completely fresh perspective. The film chronicles a phenomenal journey starting from an outsider's lens to ultimately playing at the highest elite level. As proven by its widespread audience popularity, it leaves behind a deep inspiration. Director Greg Hamilton, hailing from Canada, is an authority on Chinlone; he is highly recognized for achieving a rare, elite level of mastery in Chinlone that is seldom reached by foreigners."
3. Media Feature: Human & Emotional Connection
그렉 해밀턴 감독이 이 게임을 배우면서 서서히 변화해가는 과정을 연출했다. 감독은 미얀마의 친론 고수들과 함께 경기를 하면서, 신비하고 우아한 매력을 지닌 친론의 본질적 정서에 빠져들게 된다. 또한 따뜻하게 자신을 받아 들여 주는 소박한 미얀마 사람들에게서 잃어버렸던 가족애와 사랑까지 느끼게 된다.
[English Translation] "The film illustrates the gradual inner transformation of director Greg Hamilton as he learns this game. Playing alongside Myanmar's chinlone masters, the director immerses himself in the core emotional spirit of chinlone—a game possessing a mystical and elegant charm. Furthermore, through the humble local people who warmly embrace him, he discovers a sense of familial affection and love he thought he had lost."
🇩🇪 GERMANY & AUSTRIA (Deutsch)
Cultural & Press Critique
"Mystic Ball ist ein faszinierender Dokumentarfilm über Chinlone, den traditionellen Sport Myanmars, der Eleganz, Akrobatik und Meditation vereint. Der Kanadier Greg Hamilton dokumentiert nicht nur diese jahrhundertealte Kunst, sondern wird selbst Teil der Gemeinschaft. Ein inspirierender Film über ein Spiel ohne Gegner, Gewinner oder Verlierer, das uns zeigt, wie Sport Menschen verbinden kann."
[English Translation] "Mystic Ball is a fascinating documentary about Chinlone, the traditional sport of Myanmar that combines elegance, acrobatics, and meditation. Canadian Greg Hamilton not only documents this centuries-old art but becomes part of the community itself. An inspiring film about a game without opponents, winners, or losers, showing us how sports can connect people."
🇲🇽 MEXICO & 🇪🇸 CANARY ISLANDS (Español)
Lyrical Festival Review
"Una mirada profundamente lírica y cautivadora a Myanmar a través del 'Chinlone', su deporte nacional. Greg Hamilton nos ofrece un viaje personal de autodescubrimiento, transformándose de un observador extranjero a un maestro de un arte que es mitad danza y mitad meditación. Una obra conmovedora sobre la pasión, el ritmo y el espíritu comunitario donde ganar no es el objetivo, sino la beleza del juego compartida."
[English Translation] "A deeply lyrical and captivating look at Myanmar through 'Chinlone', its national sport. Greg Hamilton offers us a personal journey of self-discovery, transforming from a foreign observer into a master of an art that is half dance and half meditation. A moving work about passion, rhythm, and the community spirit where winning is not the goal, but rather the shared beauty of the game."
🇮🇹 MILAN & MONACO (Italiano)
Artistic Performance Evaluation
"Metà sport di squadra e metà danza meditativa, il Chinlone viene raccontato attraverso gli occhi del regista Greg Hamilton in questo straordinario documentario. Mystic Ball incanta lo spettatore con la spettacolarità dei gesti atletici e la profonda spiritualità di un gioco senza competizione, celebrando un senso di unità e armonia que supera ogni barriera culturale."
[English Translation] "Half team sport and half meditative dance, Chinlone is told through the eyes of director Greg Hamilton in this extraordinary documentary. Mystic Ball enchants the viewer with the spectacular nature of the athletic movements and the deep spirituality of a game without competition, celebrating a sense of unity and harmony that overcomes every cultural barrier."
🇧🇷 BRAZIL (Português)
Sports & Movement Review
"Para os amantes das embaixadinhas e do futebol arte, Mystic Ball é uma revelação emocionante. O filme acompanha o canadense Greg Hamilton mergulhando no Chinlone, o esporte tradicional de Myanmar. Sem times adversários, o objetivo puro é manter a bola de vime no ar com pura plasticidade e cooperação. Uma história inspiradora sobre como seguir uma paixão pode nos levar aos lugares mais inesperados do mundo."
[English Translation] "For lovers of soccer juggling and 'futebol arte', Mystic Ball is a thrilling revelation. The film follows Canadian Greg Hamilton diving into Chinlone, the traditional sport of Myanmar. With no opposing teams, the pure objective is to keep the wicker ball in the air with pure artistry and cooperation. An inspiring story about how following a passion can lead us to the most unexpected places in the world."
🇳🇴 NORWAY (Norsk)
Documentary & Anthropological Analysis
"Mystic Ball er en vakker og kontemplativ dokumentar som tar oss dypt inn i Myanmars ukjente kultur gjennom sporten Chinlone. Filmskaper Greg Hamilton skildrer sin egen tyveårige reise fra en klossete nybegynner til den første vestlige mesteren av spillet. En hjertevarm film om samhold, tålmodighet og gleden ved å mestre en urgammel tradisjon."
[English Translation] "Mystic Ball is a beautiful and contemplative documentary that takes us deep into Myanmar's unknown culture through the sport of Chinlone. Filmmaker Greg Hamilton portrays his own twenty-year journey from an awkward beginner to the first Western master of the game. A heartwarming film about unity, patience, and the joy of mastering an ancient tradition."
🇹🇭 THAILAND (ไทย)
Southeast Asian Cinematic Review
"ภาพยนตร์สารคดีที่นำเสนอเสน่ห์อันลึกซึ้งของ 'ชินลง' กีฬาดั้งเดิมของเมียนมา ผ่านมุมมองของ เกรก แฮมิลตัน ผู้กำกับชาวแคนาดาที่หลงใหลในศาสตร์นี้จนก้าวข้ามจากการเป็นคนนอกสู่การเป็นผู้เล่นระดับแนวหน้า หนังเรื่องนี้ไม่ได้พูดถึงแค่เรื่องของกีฬา แต่สะท้อนถึงจิตวิญญาณ ความร่วมมือ และการทำสมาธิผ่านการเคลื่อนไหวที่งดงามโดยไม่มีผลแพ้ชนะ"
[English Translation] "A documentary film that presents the profound charm of 'Chinlone', the traditional sport of Myanmar, through the perspective of Greg Hamilton—a Canadian director whose obsession led him from being an outsider to an elite player. This movie is not just about sports; it reflects spirit, cooperation, and meditation through beautiful movements without any win-or-loss outcomes."
🇷🇺 RUSSIA (Русский)
Independent Press & Cinema Overview
«Таинственный мяч» — это завораживающий документальный фильм о чинлоне, традиционном спорте Мьянмы, который стирает грани между танцем, медитацией и акробатикой. Режиссер Грег Хэмилтон показывает уникальную философию командной игры, где нет соперничества и проигравших. Это глубоко личная и вдохновляющая история о поиске гармонии, культурных мостах и невероятном человеческом упорстве.
[English Translation] "‘Mystic Ball’ is a mesmerizing documentary about Chinlone, the traditional sport of Myanmar, which blurs the lines between dance, meditation, and acrobatics. Director Greg Hamilton showcases the unique philosophy of a team game where there is no rivalry or losers. It is a deeply personal and inspiring story about the search for harmony, cultural bridges, and incredible human perseverance."
Interviews & Features
Legendary play theorist Bernie DeKoven highlights Mystic Ball as the ultimate real-world manifestation of his life's work—capturing a sport rooted entirely in community, trust, and the pure joy of a game played without opponents.
An article written by Greg Hamilton for Naoya Aoki's PONTE magazine, with Japanese translation by Sakurako Gibo. It offers a look into the meditative and sensuous depths of a three-decade practice, where time slows down mid-air and the feet move with an intuitive intelligence. It explores how sport can become "ecstatic physics."
青木直哉氏が手がける雑誌『PONTE』のためにグレッグ・ハミルトンが執筆し、儀保桜子氏が翻訳を務めた一編。30年に及ぶ鍛錬がもたらす、瞑想的かつ官能的な深淵。空中で時間がゆっくりと流れ、足が直感的な知性をもって動き出す世界を描いています。スポーツがいかにして「歓喜の物理学（エクスタティック・フィジックス）」へと昇華し得るのかを探求しています。
The Canadian and the Mystic Ball (Канадецът и мистичната топка)
An expansive interview covering Greg's thirty years of chinlone practice–both solo and in Myanmar–alongside his broader reflections on life, culture, and connection.
A Bulgarian National Television feature on Greg's passion for a sport centered on unconditional support, empathy, and harmony, highlighting his life-changing experiences playing in Myanmar's traditional Buddhist festivals.
An honest account of Greg's early days in Mandalay, when much of Burmese society dismissed chinlone as a "poor people's game"—a perception that has since shifted, influenced by Mystic Ball and the sport's later inclusion in the SEA Games.
An intimate look at the multi-year journey of creating the film and sharing it globally. Greg shares the profound experience of navigating years of production challenges, watching international audiences fall in love with the Burmese players, and embracing the spirit of non-competitive play—culminating in a historic double standing ovation at the Toronto premiere.
ရုပ်ရှင်ဖြစ်မြောက်ရေး နှစ်ရှည်လများ ကြိုးပမ်းအားထုတ်ခဲ့ရသည့် ခရီးစဉ်နှင့် ကမ္ဘာအနှံ့ပြသခဲ့ရသည့် အတွေ့အကြုံများကို ရင်းရင်းနှီးနှီး မျှဝေထားခြင်း ဖြစ်သည်။
ရုပ်ရှင်ရိုက်ကူးထုတ်လုပ်ရေးကာလတစ်လျှောက် အခက်အခဲများကို ကျော်ဖြတ်ခဲ့ရပုံများ၊ နိုင်ငံတကာပရိသတ်များက မြန်မာခြင်းလုံးကစားသမားများကို ရင်ထဲသည်းခြေထဲအထိ စွဲစွဲလန်းလန်း ချစ်ခင်မြတ်နိုးသွားကြပြီး အရှုံးအနိုင်မရှိကစားခြင်း၏ အနှစ်သာရကို တန်ဖိုးထားလက်ခံလာကြသည့် စိတ်လှုပ်ရှားဖွယ် အခိုက်အတန့်များအပြင် ဟော့ဒေါ့ရုပ်ရှင်ပွဲတော် အဖွင့်ပြသပွဲတွင် သမိုင်းဝင် နှစ်ကိုယ်ခွဲ လက်ခုပ်သြဘာ ချီးမြှင့်ခံရသည့်အထိ ဖြစ်တည်လာပုံများကို ဂရက်က ပြန်ပြောင်းပြောပြထားသည်။
A thought-provoking essay using Mystic Ball to contrast the deeply collaborative spirit of Chinlone with the hyper-competitive feeling often found in Western sports, business and daily life.
Un perspicaz ensayo de Carlos Salas que analiza la profunda filosofía del chinlone. Salas explora cómo este deporte desafía los conceptos occidentales de competición, negocios y trabajo en equipo, ilustrando cómo su espíritu comunitario y no competitivo promueve el equilibrio físico y mental a través de la simbiosis dentro de un círculo perfecto.
CBC Radio Canada — "Sounds Like Canada" Interview
Broadcast radio discussion covering regional reactions to non-competitive sport.
CKLN Radio 88.1 FM - Special Feature Interview
Live broadcast profile covering the physical mastery, training processes, and independent cinema background (April 28, 2006).