Win the City is a documentary produced by Laureus USA that follows the story of how everyday Chicagoans have come together to leverage the power of sport for good and create a better Chicago where young people have the opportunity to play and connect, and connect, and communities can unite and thrive.

Director Biography

Justin Jarrett is an Emmy-Award winning writer + director based in Philadelphia. He has written and directed over 200 television shows, commercials, shorts, and feature-length documentaries across five different continents while acting as the Principal Director of Philadelphia based production company, JTWO, as well as serving as Principal Creative Director at television development studio, Mesmeric Media, which he co-founded. Justin’s unique style of directing has allowed him to seamlessly weave between the worlds of commercial + documentary filmmaking for over 20 years. Often merging his love of sports and action with human interest pieces, Justin’s work has been featured on Amazon Prime, the Discovery Channel, ESPN, NBC, PBS, CBS, the Science Channel, and the American Heroes Channel.

Director Statement

When we set out to tell this story, I thought I was making a film about sports. What I discovered was something far more profound – a blueprint for transformation that challenges everything we think we know about community building and youth development. Chicago has always worn its sports identity like a badge of honor, from Jordan's Bulls dynasty to loyal Cubs fans, but for too long, we treated sport as entertainment rather than empowerment, as spectacle rather than solution. Win the City is the story of a radical shift in perspective – one that recognizes sport not just as games played on fields and courts, but as one of the most powerful tools we have to address the systemic challenges facing our young people. Through Sport for Good Chicago, I witnessed firsthand how coaches become mentors, how teammates become family, and how the lessons learned in competition – resilience, teamwork, discipline, hope – become the foundation for breaking cycles of violence and isolation. 

Sport becomes the vehicle, but the destination is always the same: a future filled with possibility, purpose, and pride. In a city too often defined by its problems, Win the City reveals Chicago's greatest strength – its people's unwavering determination to lift each other up. This coalition represents something beautiful: the recognition that we rise together or not at all.

My hope is that audiences will leave this film understanding that transformation is possible in any community willing to reimagine what sport can be. The greatest sports city in the world isn't measured by championships alone – it's measured by how many young lives are changed, how many communities are strengthened, and how many people discover they have the power to win not just for themselves, but for everyone around them. This is our team. This is our movement. This is how we win the city.

Link to official press kit.