Have you heard of the sports drink PowerBurst?
Unless you played for the San Francisco 49ers in the mid-1980s, you probably haven’t.
USC student filmmakers and brothers Ed and Alec Lesnick detail the abrupt rise and fall of the sports drink created by their mother Peggy, in a documentary called “PowerBurst: A Cinderella Story of Innovation and Corruption” which is one of the MarketPlace films as part of the Palm Springs International ShortFest. Through her father she had ties to the San Francisco 49ers and after introducing PowerBurst to the team in themid-1980s, they were impressed.
Then-owner Ed DeBartolo Jr. backed the drink and gave her a large sum of money to kickstart the burgeoning empire. It was the official drink of the San Francisco NFL franchise. Commercials featuring Joe Montana helped the drink grow in popularity. The new, tastier drink, was poised to challenge GatorAde.
Then the roof caved in. DeBartolo got into some legal and financial trouble and as a money-saving measure, stopped backing the PowerBurst project. When he sold the 49ers to his sister, the partnership ended. The company was sold to a manufacturer in Toronto. I’ll leave what happens after that a secret.
Peggy Lesnick’s dream was over almost as quickly as it started. It was a Cinderella story that reached midnight way too early.
The 8-10 minute documentary explores this rise and fall in a straightforward way, but journalistically I would have like to have seen a little more depth. It could have used a little more explanation into the legal wrangling that went along with the DeBartolo downturn. In several cases I was left to infer what was happening, when I would have preferred being told more clearly what was happening. The filmmakers were trying to keep the short film under 10 minutes, so I understand the editing process is difficult.
If this is a topic that interests you, you should seek out “PowerBurst: A Cinderella Story of Innovation and Corruption” at the Film MarketPlace at the Palm Springs Short Film Festival.
The ShortFest information number is (760) 322-2930 or check the website at www.psfilmfest.org.
To send a message to the film makers, e-mail them at edlesnick@hotmail.com.