The Hobby
- Directed by: Morgan Jon Fox
- Released: 2024 (educational)
- Year of Production: 2023
A McDonald’s Happy Meal shortage. A security guard escort. Guns pulled in a Target parking lot. All of these are caused by a common factor: trading cards. In 2020, a new BOOM began. For the first time, large hedge funds, celebrities like Logan Paul and Steve Aoki, nostalgic millennials, entrepreneurs like Josh Luber, and billionaires scrambled to add sports, Pokémon, and other hot item cards to their collections and portfolios. Over the next two years, the hobby exploded — even causing card grading services to shut down due to overwhelming customer service. This documentary is a character-driven feel good deep dive into the high-stakes, eccentric world of card collecting- following buyers, sellers, card shop owners, graders, online streamers, auctioneers, and more, who all participate in the hobby in their own unique ways.
Known for getting strong, authentic performances, and telling gritty regional southern stories, his early micro-budget feature films Blue Citrus Hearts, and OMG/HaHaHa were film festival hits and gained international distribution. His documentary This Is What Love In Action Looks Like gained praise and national attention from CNN, Good Morning America, The New York Times and The Advocate for capturing the true story of a Memphis teen who was forced into a religious based “straight camp” intended to change his sexuality. The doc screened around the world and won the Derek Oyston CHE Film Award at the London LGBT Film Festival. His TV project, FERAL is an 8 Episode show about a close knit group of 20-something LGBT artists living in Memphis, TN. Described as “‘Weekend’ meets ‘Girls’(Huffington Post), Feral was praised as “an authentic queer drama”(out.com), “atmospheric and romantic.. heartbreaking” (indiewire), and was nominated for Best Web Series by Queerty.com. His latest project, The One You Never Forget is a multi-award winning short film about teenagers going on their first dance. After screening at over 100 film festivals around the world, it has amassed more than 500K views on Vimeo & Youtube.
Host a Screening and Book the Filmmaker at your Event