Forgotten: An artist without audience
Director: Daniel Soares
United States, 2018, 18 min
Shooting Format:Alexa Mini
Festival Year:2019
Category:Documentary Short
Genre:Drama
Cast:Leon 'Tevin'
Crew:Producers: Kelly Laguaite, Rance Randle, Aimee Perrin, Daniel Soares - Editor: Alvaro del Val - Cinematographer: Mika Alstkan
Email:soaresfilm@gmail.com
Synopsis
Would you still perform your art, even if nobody was watching? That’s a question Tevin faces everyday. After 26 years of professional playing Jai Alai - the fastest ball game in the world- Tevin is trying to bring back the crowds to the court. While remembering the glorious past of this sport in Miami, he tries everything in order to play one last match with a stadium full of people.
Trailer
About the director
Daniel Soares is a film director who grew up in Germany & Portugal, currently based in New York. His work reflects his interest in the quirks, oddities and passions of humanity. His work has been featured in The Guardian, Mashable and New York Times & exhibited at the International Center of Photography.
Filmmaker's note
I found out about the current state of Jai Alai through my friend (and Editor of this piece) Alvaro del Val. We thought it was incredible that there is a sport in Florida that is almost completely forgotten but has professional athletes that are paid quite good money. All this came to be because there is a law in Florida that allows casinos to stay open only if they have Jai Alai, horse races or dog races attached to their venue.
So I drove down to Miami and met Tevin, an incredible human being and world class Jai Alai player. He is the protagonist of this film, giving the viewer a look into this conflicted life of being a high-level athlete nobody cares about. As a filmmaker I often times ask myself why I make the films I make and if I’d still do them if nobody watched them. It’s easy to say yes, but would I really?
'Forgotten’ is a 18 minutes long portrait of modern day America and an ode to doing what you love.